Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords
by Apocalyptian Scribe
Summary: In one universe, Cole Macgrath, Demon of Empire city, activates the RFI ending the lives of all conduits on Earth. In another universe, Alex Mercer saves New York city from a nuclear payload. In their last moments, both heroes are sent on a one-way trip to another universe. What fate lies before our two heroes and what is this shadowy figure that is tracking them?
1. The Prologue

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

An Infamous and Prototype crossover set in the Claymore Universe

Prologue

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PS: This will NOT be a yaoi fic

* * *

The Beast was finally on its knees. John White's large body fell as it was wracked with explosions and electrical shockwaves. The tall fiery monster had been stopped . . . for the moment. Cole Macgrath stood with a strange glowing device in his hands. The RFI or Ray Field Inhibitor as it was called, was designed to cure the plague that was spreading across the eastern coast and to completely destroy the beast. Of course there was an added side effect that the RFI had and, really, it was the only reason why the RFI worked against the beast.

'_So this is it I guess. I'm gonna die._'

When the RFI went off, he would be killed. It was inevitable and was certainly undesirable, but, in the end, he knew what he had to do. Sacrifice was a word the he was familiar with. It was a constant reminder of what he stood for. At that moment, he remembered single person in his mind.

Trish

She was the only woman that he had ever got himself to love. No one had stood there for him like her and no one gave him more of a reason to live. It was somewhat a déjà vu moment for him here. Back in empire city, Cole sacrificed her life to save the lives of doctors. Here he would be sacrificing his life and all the conduits in the world to save mankind from the destruction of the beast.

The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

_*COUGH COUGH*_

Cole turned to see Kuo coughing and rushed towards her. He held her in his arms and she cried as she coughed. Kuo had always been the driving force of goodness that Cole had always turned to. In these trying times, however, Kuo had turned to help the beast. She couldn't accept death like Cole could. Cole was sympathetic. Why should they have had to sacrificed their lives? Why should they have been killed off, the ones that did good, and everyone else had to be saved? Kuo couldn't answer this and turned to the beast, but Cole still knew what had to be done.

The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

Kuo cried in his arms and Cole comforted her as best as he could.

"It's ok" Cole reassured Kuo

"*sniff sniff* It's not ok." Kuo spit back, "You made the right choice. Hell Nix even made the right choice."

Nix had been a fiery hot conduit that always tried to seduce Cole into going at things her way. If there were people that were protesting about Cole, she would always tell him to attack them. If there was someone with a blast core, she would tell him to steal it from them. He would always tell her no and she would always question why they would have to serve the weak and why they had to fight for their pleasure and not her and his own pleasure. He always told her the same thing.

The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

In the end, she understood it and showed her resolve by sacrificing herself to stop the beast for a few precious seconds and in those precious seconds he continued on to stop the beast.

". . .I was— I am scared. . ." Kuo continued. Her eyes were red with tears, tears that were now flowing down her face and freezing from her icy cold skin.

"I know" Cole spoke. Kuo looked down ashamed for fighting against Cole.

"Do it," she whimpered

He moved away from her icy body as he stood straight. He spared a look at the kneeling fiery beast's body and shifted his sight back to Kuo. She coughed as he took out the RFI again and prepared himself for the pain.

He felt the energy being drained from his own body. His flesh felt weak as the device beeped in glory. For a moment the world around him felt silent as he let himself go. The moment passed and the energy racked his body as a beam of light flew into the sky. The energy penetrated the atmosphere and was sent out in a wave of energy that reached every conduit in the world killing them.

One by one the corrupted in New Marias dropped dead in the blast's wake. Vermakk 88 agents dropped like flies as the ice caused by their carnage melted with them. The plague went with them as families flocked to their previously thought to be dead members and the sounds of rejoice echoed throughout the city. The sounds of celebrations could be heard throughout the city just for being alive, but one man didn't say a sound.

He ran towards the origin of the blast and found the two dead bodies of the conduits John White and Lucy Kuo. Cole was nowhere to be found. A fear struck him that hit him hard, that his friend would go down as an unsung hero. But here in New Marias, they knew what he had done. The Demon of Empire City had finally become the Patron Saint of New Marias.

Some people swore that they heard a voice though, a voice that went across the stars. Some say that he had never died and had gone somewhere else. But what all could say was that there was only one definite thing to say.

Cole had lived half as long but twice as bright.

However, his story would not end here.

It had only just begun.

* * *

Blood and sweat was pouring from the monstrosity as it roared. The large humanoid had gotten its arm chopped off from the real monster in the room . . . or well the boat. The real monster was the virus that called itself Alex Mercer. He had been on this aircraft carrier in the hopes that he would be able to stop General Randall and his nuclear salvo. However, he found that the man had already activated the bomb and now he stood face to face with the Supreme Hunter, though now it wasn't much of a threat anymore.

Alex ran up to the beast smirking at the creature's earlier comment. Such arrogance. To think that it could have faced him and lived. His right arm changed as the tendrils on this body twisted it into a huge curved blade that could slice the armor off of tanks. As he closed the distance, Alex jumped up from under his neck and sliced the Supreme hunter's head off. He just had to comment on the pathetic creature.

"Grow that back"

He landed, still watching the creature turn into a lump of dead twisting flesh. It gurgled as the blood gushed out from its large open wounds and slumped chest down onto the ground. Alex now had other matters at hand.

He ran towards the lowered floor and went straight towards the nuke. From the looks of it, he only had a couple minutes before it detonated. He gave himself a small smirk. The Supreme Hunter had barely given him any trouble that he still had enough time for his plan. He grabbed the nuke as gently as any superhuman monster could and placed it on the platform. When it reached the top, he was greeted by several soldiers foolishly pointing guns at him.

"You know that I got a nuke that going to go off in about three minutes?" Alex smugly stated.

The soldiers looked at each other as held their guns and their ground.

"I suggest you get out of my way or just leave."

Alex hefted the large nuke and all of the soldiers just parted. Nukes usually had the ability to make people compliant.

He calmly walked towards one of the Helicopters and quickly got to work. He quickly attached the nuke to the helicopter and swiftly started up the engines. The soldiers watched in awe how fast he had worked and by then, most had started to evacuate the aircraft carrier. As soon as he finished he jumped into the pilot's seat and had gotten himself moving.

Once the helicopter had gone a sufficient distance, he started to go into deep thought. He had thought about Dana and had worried if she would be ok. He had thought about Dr. Ragland and wondered if he would be able to keep Dana safe.

Dana was the only person that he could count on as family. While she wasn't really family, as he now was BLACKLIGHT rather than the human Alex Mercer, he still felt kinship with her.

'_Gonna miss that . . . though then again killing was all I did. I don't think I would be able to go back to acting human at this point._'

He pondered his actions and the previous couple of weeks. The infection that the previous Alex Mercer had caused had gone to catastrophic levels of destruction, but he had caused just about the same amount. He could remember his first kill, a soldier that had shot him not realizing how much of a monster he was. He remembered all the faces that he saw of those he killed, all the screams of terror were stuck in his head reminding him of what he was. He wasn't human maybe even something less, . . . but also something more.

He moved his gaze up at the moon and saw its strange light. He closed his eyes as he brought the helicopter to a complete stop and dropped the nuke. He turned away from the moon and went on his way. He could almost hear the beeping as he counted down the last moments of the nuke.

5

4

3

2

1

. . .

He felt the silence consume him as the nuke exploded. He had been confident with his distance, but he soon found himself feeling the Helicopter slow to a halt and soon it had started to go in another direction. He turned his ride as he attempted to resist pull when he found that the copter had completely stopped and he felt himself being pulled. He gave a hard stare and went wide eyed as he faced the strange anomaly.

'_What the hell?_'

What he saw was an eerily lite blue opening of a portal that seemed to drag him in. The ominous light of the nuke was right behind the portal was completely paused in time. The saw as the helicopter was stopped in time as well, he could feel the pull drawing him into the portal as it broke the seams of the seat as well as the seat belt. What in the hell was this thing? Where in the hell would it take him? Alex couldn't help but feel excited.

'_Heh, sorry Dana. I guess I won't be seeing you anytime soon. Please forgive me for this._'

The tendrils on his hands changed into sharp claws as he cut himself free from his seat belt bindings. The full force of the pull dragged him out to the portal. He strangely could still feel the heat emanating from the nuke as he realized time started to move forward. The nuke blast started to move forward threatening to consume him, but, as suddenly the portal had appeared, the portal closed. Mercer had disappeared.

* * *

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	2. The Awakening

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Blades Chapter 1

The Awakening

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* * *

The clear night sky was a silent black mass littered with stars. Some said that this night would have been calm if it were not for two objects that flew through said sky. Two shooting stars swam through the seamless mass of darkness and stars. One star was a mass of blue and few said that they swore that they could hear a whisper of hope in these troubled times. The other falling object was a mass of dark red and some spoke of its dark tidings for the future. What no one realized was that these two objects eventually landed right next to each other and left fairly large craters.

The blue mass of light lost its glow to reveal a man in a white and light grey shirt with track pants. The blue light flowed from him as he started to get up, groaning as he felt the pain coursing through his body.

"Agghh, damn what the hell did I drink."

His memories had left him, everything was unclear and painful. Suddenly a shock of electricity reminded Cole of what had transpired before.

'_Wait, aren't I supposed to be dead?_'

He looked around and took in his environment. He was in a crater that reminded him of the ray sphere blast he was in, only this crater was much smaller. There were trees he could clearly see and wildlife that he could barely hear. This definitely wasn't heaven . . .was it?

"Where the hell am I?" He grumbled.

The aches were starting to leave him as he walked out of the crater. He sent out a Radar pulse and was surprised to only feel one source of electricity and was shocked to find it in another crater next to him. This crater glowed dark red and, as he stared at it, Cole could feel the presence start to stir. The glow slowly dissipated as he soon found himself staring at a man who was on his knees.

As the man stood up, Cole noticed that the man wore a buttoned-up white shirt partially buttoned, a plain gray hoodie, and a black leather jacket with a red tribal design on his back. On his lower body, the man wore plain blue jeans and black shoes.

Alex looked towards the living presence that he sensed earlier in his awakening. As Alex looked at Cole, Alex found himself staring at the conduit with different vision types. As he observed the man, Alex could only feel surprised as he found himself staring at something he had never seen

Cole was looking back at him with the exact same idea. Cole had still retained his ability to observe a person's body's innards. The beast had given it to him so that he could find those that were infected by the plague that racked New Marias.

"Who the hell are you?" Alex growled.

"I could say the same for you," Cole retorted.

The two men stared down each other for almost a minute before Cole spoke.

"Where the hell are your organs?"

Alex was slightly taken aback by this, "What?"

"I can see through your body a bit. Not totally, but I can tell that you definitely don't have organs." Cole clarified.

Alex looked at him with a questioning look. "I don't have organs because I'm not human."

Alex jumped out of the crater and Cole soon found him face to face with the hooded virus.

"Your turn. How can you see through my body?"

Cole stood firm where he was unyielding. "I'm a conduit, or in other words a guy that has super powers,"

Alex stood still but smirked after a couple of seconds and crossed his arms together, "Really, then show me."

Cole put his arms up in front of him and Alex soon found lines of electricity flowing from one hand to the next. His arms lite up blue from the electrical light show and Alex could help but be impressed.

"Wow and I thought I was weird" Alex joked

"What about you," Cole responded. "Show me what you got, 'hoody'."

Soon after Cole finished his question, Alex's body soon had tendrils warping around his body. It quickly shifted to his arms as they disappeared and transformed into claws. He quickly dashed to a tree and cut it down with a quick horizontal slash. The cut wasn't clean, however, and Alex found himself making the tree into splinters rather than clean cuts.

Cole had seen the entire affair and was snickering. "That's it? Barely cutting a tree is all you got?"

"You go something to say you buzz-cut freak?" Alex yelled.

"Oh, now you made me mad."

Cole pulled out his amp and started to charge it. His feet shifted as he soon readied himself to attack. Alex shifted body as well as he made his right arm morph into a large blade. The weight of the blade pulled Alex's feet down into the dirt.

The two combatants stared at one another, waiting to make a first move. Eye movements, shuffling limbs, and small openings were all that were traded. For a second, the two looked as though they wouldn't fight, until they started running towards each other.

They rushed at each other, both combatants moving ever closer to each other until their weapons clashed in a great clang. Both superhumans stared into each other's eyes with harsh glares.

But then they felt movement along the trees. Cole instinctively used a radar pulse while Alex glanced around with his heat vision. The two men put themselves back to back as they got into a defensive stance.

Alex spoke out first.

"Get your ass out here now."

The leaves shifted as the voice travelled through the air.

"Don't bother hiding. We know you GUYS, are there," Cole shouted as the annunciated one of his words.

Soon the bushes and trees shifted to reveal strange humanoid nude monsters. While not as disgusting as the infected or mutated as the corrupted, the monsters' faces made the virus and the conduit cringe in disgust.

"No wonder you guys hid in the trees. You're ugly as hell." Cole remarked

"Oh, don't insult them. They've probably been insulted enough by their own mothers," Alex said laughing.

The creatures snarled and one of them, to the surprise of the two individuals, spoke up.

"**Shut up humans. We've got you surrounded. You can't possibly hope to fight even one of us let alone eight.**"

Cole still smiled, "Hey what do you know, it can count."

All eight creatures rushed towards them as the two combatants moved up to face their opponents. Cole found himself dodging extending fingers as he reached his first monster to bash. The amp swung down and hit the creature square in the head, sending it face first to the ground. Before it could hit the ground, the creature's head found itself in contact with the amp again. The amp lopped its head off easily as Cole found himself in surprise.

"Damn, did I do that?"

He turned and saw that Alex had quickly dispatched with one of the creatures as well, but in a much bloodier fashion. The claws were obviously built to cut flesh and it certainly redeemed itself as Alex ripped through the creature's body like butter. Cole was a bit grossed out but didn't continue his thoughts on the matter, mostly because he was being attacked by the other three on him.

Cole quickly spun to dodge all 30 fingers and dashed towards his next victim. This one had seen the previous attack's effects and so he quickly dodged the blow only to find himself being blasted in the air by a shockwave that hit another one of his fellow monsters. They started to float down slowly when they found themselves both being stuck with glowing orbs. The orbs exploded and blew up the creatures in a shower of guts and gore, which sickened and shocked Cole.

"Holy damn, when the hell did my grenades get that powerful?"

Alex was getting frustrated with his three as these creatures started to learn to avoid the extremely sharp claws. However, they weren't as fast as he was. As the one of the turned to dodge his attack, the claw changed into a blade and soon Alex shifted his momentum to slice the body in half. The other two were stunned for a bit and attacked him, hoping to hit his back. All twenty fingers found their mark and they shouted with glee.

"**Ha, ha, that's right human. You're all so pitiful to think that you can stop—**"

It never got to finish that sentence as it found itself with a face full of a hammerfist as well as body full and stomach full of said fist. The creature was smashed into a bloody pool of flesh and guts with only its extended fingers remaining. The last one turned to run hoping to get away from the monstrosity that totally butchered his companions, but found himself being tugged by Alex's whipfist.

"Well then, let's see what you got."

Alex smashed the creature into the ground as he started to punch it brutally to death. The creature screeched in pain only to be consumed by Alex and replaced with Alex's own shout of pain. He fell to his knees as memories travelled through his brain.

Cole heard Alex and shouted back to him. "Hey, what wrong. You ok?"

"**Heh heh, you need to focus on your opponent stupid human rather than your dead friend.**"

The creature stabbed its hand into the ground as Cole turned around. He felt the presence of the fingers rushing towards him but it was too late. The five fingers pierced his heart, guts, and stomach. He cringed a bit for the initial pain and then he gave a confused look.

There was no pain and he didn't even bleed.

"What the—"

The creature was as shocked as he was both figuratively and literally as it felt electricity flow through his fingers and shock him completely. The creature screamed as the electric energy fried him inside out and soon it was no more. The body disintegrated into ash and Cole looked at his wounds. The five holes that were on him seemed to be sparking with electricity. Slowly but surely they closed up and he found himself stuttering.

"Huh, I guess you and I are both alike"

Cole found himself staring at the viral biomass. "What?"

"Let me explain," Alex responded, "I am a virus that is made up of a large biomass of flesh. I don't have organs because all I am is a large mound of flesh that can change shape as well as regenerate. You, on the other hand, are like me made of electricity."

"How am I like a large mound of flesh that changes into weird crap?"

"You're not flesh, but you are electricity."

Cole shifted his gaze to his hands. His hands sparked and, as he looked closely, the sparks seemed to be coming from his own essence. "Whoa . . . how could you tell."

"I was looking at you and saw that your body was a mass of electrical energy."

"How am I even alive?"

Alex shrugged, "Well, from what I can tell, human impulse is just a bunch of electricity anyways. You must somehow be grounded in a physical form that can shift into an electrical form." Alex stared closer at him as he continued. "I also think that you might be constantly generating electricity, have any idea why."

Cole crossed his arms as he looked towards the crater. Suddenly, he felt that his mind had a revelation. "WAIT, the RFI!"

"What?"

"Don't worry about it. It was just something I used before I got transported here. I had to charge it by putting a bunch of energy into it from me. It must have gotten fused inside me."

"Yea, you must have some sort of energetic reaction that'll fuel you forever."

"So, I'm invincible now. Heh, that's awesome."

"No not invincible." Cole looked back at Alex confused as Alex continued. "If your physical form gets disrupted or gets unstable, you might just scatter in a billion directions as electrical energy."

Cole shrugged, "Ahh well, it's not like anyone's going to be able to do that much to me. . . Say, how do you know all this."

"I guessed it."

"You guessed it?"

"Yea, it does help to have a couple hundred scientists in your head."

"Come again," Cole remarked. "I think I just heard you say you have voices in your head."

"When I consume something," Alex annunciated with tendrils shifting over his body, "I take their biological mass as well as their memories."

"Oh, cool I guess. How do you have a bunch of scientists in your head?" Cole queried.

"I was a virus that took the form of a human that released me. I ate people to find out why I had amnesia and in turn I gained some skills along the way. What's your story."

"Oh, my future self came back to the past to help me discover my powers to fight a large super human that destroyed stuff. I learned to use my powers and used something called an RFI that helped me kill the guy."

They both paused for a moment to take in the information that they had just discussed. "Wow, normal people would probably think we're crazy."

"You said it. I'm a virus and you're a super hero with help from the future."

Another pause came across the two. The stared into each other's eyes smiling.

". . . Name's Cole Macgrath, Demon of Empire City" Cole said sticking his hand out for a handshake.

"Alex Mercer, 'Terrorist' and bioweapon" Alex responded accepting the hand.

They looked to each other and smirked confidently

This would certainly be an interesting change of pace.

* * *

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	3. The Beginning

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords Chapter 2

The Beginning

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Also Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**Thanks for the reviews everyone**

**Pairings will not be known until the story goes on. I don't like spoiling stuff and I HATE the love stories where the characters fall instantly in love. It's just so jarring for me and seems too unnatural**

**This story will occur in the normal Claymore timeline, ie. After Clare gets admitted into the organization**

**Man I am Updating Fast**

* * *

"This is the sixth one"

A crowd had formed around a dead body that lied in the streets. The frail body was in a semi fetal position and his guts had been eaten. Everyone knew what had caused this death.

"Darn it! The last one was just three days ago."

"What'll we do? At this rate . . ."

"There's no doubt about it. A Yoma is in the village."

"If we don't do something about it, we're finished."

"We gotta tell the Chief."

The villagers were anxious and weary and soon the crowd moved to the leader's office. The streets were now clear and no one was able to witness two strangers wearing cloaks entering the village.

As they walked, the two eyed the still recent bloodstains of the dead man, but continued on unfazed. They eventually reached an inn and entered. The place was quiet and the only person that was there was an older woman that had her hair tied up neatly in a bun.

She eyed the two strangers and raised an eyebrow. Despite the fact that the cloaks hid their bodies fairly well, she could clearly see the two strangely dressed gentlemen faces. They were somewhat middle aged and their gaze oozed with a glare that could pierce steel.

One of the men spoke, "Um, yea hi we'd like a room with two beds please."

The lady rubbed her head, dismissing her previous thoughts though still curious about her new patrons.

"You do know about the Yoma that's in the village right?"

"Yea and?" the other man growled.

"I think it's just safer to go to another village."

"We don't care just give us a room." The same man growled.

The one the first spoke elbowed the other man a bit, "Hey, calm down." Despite his rough voice, he seemed friendly enough. "We got money so can we get a room please?"

She sighed, "Fine, its three beras for a room."

One of the men quickly went up to the counter and placed down three small sticks of gold and they both went on their way up. The lady at the desk dragged the money and placed it in a little container as she mused.

'_I hope these men don't cause any trouble. A Yoma is bad enough in this village._'

The two figured shuffled into the room and closed the door behind them. Alex Mercer and Cole Macgrath moved into the room and stretched finally taking off the large and overbearing cloak. They had been walking for eighteen hours straight and were finally ready to take a break.

"Mercer, you can't just be hostile with every person you see."

The virus was still a bit annoyed. "I'm not used to moving around with another person. When I do stick with someone else, it's usually in a tank blowing up things and killing people."

"That still doesn't mean that you can't talk to people nicely," Cole remarked while smacking Alex's back. "Besides, there's a first time for everything ya know."

Cole jumped onto the bed back first and relished in the softness. "Hey Alex, the lady did say something about a Yoma right?"

"Yea," Alex murmured as he came to sit on a chair.

"Ya wanna help em?"

Alex pondered a bit, reliving the moments after they introduced themselves.

* * *

Eighteen hours ago

"So then Mercer, what did you get from eating that ugly mother?"

"Quite a lot," Alex responded. They had been walking through the forest for about half an hour. For some strange reason, Alex felt it necessary to move in this direction before heading to a road. "From what I can tell, we aren't on Earth."

Cole raised his hand. "Nooooo, I just couldn't tell from the weird finger shooting demon freaks that just tried to kill us." Cole sarcastically remarked.

Alex rolled his eyes, "Well," Alex retorted, "The things that we just fought against were called Yoma. Some weird demonic monsters that eat human guts."

"Ok then, anything else?"

"Well, the technology level is something similar to what Earth was like in the middle ages, but they still apparently have biological engineering."

"Biological engineering?"

"You know how fast those freaks were when we fought them right?"

"Not really,"

"What?"

"I guess I'm just too awesome to worry about fighting demon freaks."

"Don't be stupid"

"Hey calm down, it's just a joke."

"Jokes are pointless right now."

"Fine fine, I'll be serious." Cole gestured with his hands

"Anyways, apparently these Yoma guys can absolutely dominate humans in every way. They got speed, strength, agility, regeneration, and the ability to eat people and take their appearance as well as take their memories. You could say that their built to hunt humans."

"Reminds me of someone I know."

Alex rolled his eyes and continued, "Yea yea, anyways. In order to have any chance at these bastards, a group of guys called the 'Organization' created female warriors that could combat them by somehow splicing Yoma DNA into their bodies."

"So you're saying that we're in a world within a medieval time period with monster hunting women," Cole shrugged a bit. "I guess there could be worse places to be."

"Mmmhmm," Alex responded, "They hunt down Yoma for money and get tons of money that way. Speaking of money . . . Here we are."

The two men came across a derelict cart in the middle of the road. A small bag of money was there in the cart as well as some larger cloaks. Cole looked inside the bag and found the strange golden stick shaped objects.

"This is their money?"

"Yea I know, it's weird. The people here call it Beras or something like that."

Cole held one of the sticks and played with it with his fingers. The Bera glowed in his hands and he felt the electricity course through it.

"Well you got anything else Mercer like how to get home?"

Mercer flung the coat over his body and fidgeted a bit. "That was all I got from that Yoma. If I can, I'm going to try and consume some more of those freaks." Mercer started to head towards another direction when Cole questioned his sudden movements.

"Where we headed?"

"Some town. I was able to get that from the Yoma's memories. Also, if we're going to a random town, we're gonna have to come up with some ground rules to avoid unwanted attention."

Cole raised his brow at this, "What?"

"We don't belong here and the sooner we get off this rock, the better."

"Why do you even care?"

"It's just what I do."

"Then let me ask you this. What happens when there's a Yoma in one of the towns that we stay at?"

"We'll just leave it alone."

"What?!"

"I don't care. Back where I'm from, collateral damage was something ordinary for me. As long as it doesn't screw with us, I'm not gonna bother wasting my time."

"HEY," Cole rushed up and grabbed the virus' shirt and pulled him closer, "All lives are important! Don't you DARE say that bullshit with me around! You got it!"

Mercer paused a bit at this staring into his eyes. "Don't be stupid. Our first priority is leaving this rock and getting home." Alex snarled.

"No shit, but I'm not letting some innocent folks die just cause we wanna remain 'inconspicuous'." Cole hissed.

They stood there for a minute, the air flowing through the trees and into their faces. They looked at each other unfazed like tall steel pillars. Alex broke eye contact first and sat down next to a tree. Cole watched as Alex turned his head to Cole again.

"What's it with you and human lives?"

Cole looked at him with solemn contemplation. His eyes moved down and stopped as it reached his hands. They glowed in the darkness of the forest and faded away.

"The way I got my powers was through a device called the Ray Sphere." Cole paused for a moment as he closed his eyes and opened them again. "When I activated it, the device leveled several blocks of where I was and took hundreds of lives. I could still hear their voices in my head. All the screams and cries for anyone to help, all the energy that they expelled fused with me.."

"When I came to, the city had changed. The Ray Sphere had released a plague that killed people left and right, crime just ran through the city like a disease of its own and there I was with electric super powers. People called me a terrorist and accused me for setting off the damn sphere. Even my best friend gave me some looks though he still stayed by my side like a real brother. What did bother me was what my girlfriend felt."

Cole walked up to a tree and put his back to the rough etch of the bark. As descended to the ground, he furiously searched his pack and found what he was looking for. A small photograph was locked in his hands. Cole's eye came to a low droop as he looked at the picture and sadness came to his face. In it, it showed a Cole and Trish as happy as they would be or would have been on their wedding day. Cole would never experience this moment or feel the joy that he would have on this day forever for the man in the photo was Kesslar, his future self, and this picture would be a constant reminder of what he would never have with Trish.

Alex walked up to Cole as Cole handed Alex the picture. Alex studied the picture and spoke, "She's beautiful, she must have been lucky to have you,"

"She died because of me. . ." Cole said unflinching. Alex turned to him and listened intently.

"When the Sphere . . . did what it did, it killed Trish's sister. Trish cared for her and when she found out that I made the Sphere go off, she felt betrayed." Cole stood up and took the picture gently out of Alex's grip.

"I tried all that I could to get her back. I did good deeds, helped people, showed that I didn't set the bomb off on purpose. After a while, she started to come back and I think she knew that it wasn't my fault. I thought she was going to be back with me, but someone else had other plans."

Alex stood back as he observed Cole. Cole's face was calm but his clenched fists and body language said otherwise.

"You know how I said that I had my future self came to develop my powers?"

Alex nodded as Cole continued, "Yea, he called himself Kessler. After about a week or two of being a hero, I got a challenge from his ass. He held Trish captive on one building and had five other doctors on another building. He told me that I could save Trish from an untimely death of falling hundreds of feet onto the ground or I could save the doctors that could help the already sick populace. I had to choose between the woman I loved and the good of the city. It was beyond any other difficult choice that I had to go through."

"I first made my way up the building that Trish was on. There was no way that I would let her die. I. . . I just couldn't." Tears started to well up in his eyes as he punched a tree. The bark broke from the force as he kept wailing on the wood. Cole spoke after a solid five punches and his voice was close to a whisper.

"But I couldn't do it. Trish always told me something. It was some quote that she heard on some old TV show, '_The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few_'"

"If I saved her, it would just spit on everything that she stood for and everything that I had worked. My original purpose: getting Trish back, had evolved, now I was a hero that people looked up to I was a symbol of hope in times of crisis. So I saved the other five. I hoped and sweared to god to all things, on all things good and righteous, to save Trish, but when I turned around. . ."

"He dropped her" Alex finished with a solemn tone.

"I was able to revive her for a bit," Cole spat out. "She told me how proud she was of what I became and how even in the worst of times I had stayed true to my heroism rather than become something that reveled in my powers."

Cole stood still for a second, gathered himself, and continued, "She kept telling me to go on with being a hero and that she loved me. To live life to the fullest and to be the best human I could be. Live half as long, and Twice as bright she said."

"Yea, from that point on I always dedicated myself to being a hero and saving people. I was willing to help others at all costs. I even tried to sacrifice my own life with the RFI."

Alex couldn't help but fidget in place. The silence was uncomfortable for him and the words that Cole spoke shook Alex to his core. Cole was perhaps the first person that Alex had known that sacrificed so much for so little. Alex was glad when Cole eventually broke the lasting silence.

"So that's my story, that's why human lives are important to me and I'll do whatever the hell it takes to save as many lives as possible and you better damn well respect it or shove whatever crap that's in your head up your ass."

Alex sighed and put his hands in his pants pockets. The monster looked into Cole's eyes and with an emotionless glare over his face.

"Macgrath," Alex reassured, "I may not really care about people or human life or any life for that matter, . . . but I can damn respect what you've gone through."

Cole recoiled slightly. Alex's face was different from it normal scowl and it had become an understanding gentle face.

"So," Cole asked "You gonna . . ."

"Yea," Alex said with rolled eyes and hands up high, "We'll go your way Hero."

* * *

Back to the Present

Alex came to as Cole started to bounce on the bed.

"Man this is comfy for some medieval cot and bouncy." Cole jovially blabbered.

"Yea I know," Alex responded

"How would you know, you've been on that chair since we've got here and you still haven't answered my question."

"What does it matter, you're still going to help them right?"

"Yea, that doesn't mean you can slink your ass away from answering."

"I'll help as long as I don't reveal myself."

"Yeaaaa, no."

Alex raised an eyebrow at this.

"If you wanna be a hero, we gotta show off."

"First never said I'd be a 'hero' and secondly why would we need to show off."

"Hey you said we'd do things my way and showing off is what I can do."

"Why can't we just go back to you crying over the past," Alex moaned.

Cole sat up as he spoke to Alex, "Hey Mercer, the past is nice and all but you can't live in it forever. You gotta move on and just learn from the past."

Alex frowned, "What was with your story then? Why aren't you over her, huh?"

"Hey that's not living in the past . . . it's just remembering."

"Remembering?"

"Yea, just remember what was and getting stronger. Because of her, I have more resolve than ever to do what's right."

Alex leaned back on his chair and swayed back and forth. "So how do I learn from my past."

"Like I said, you shouldn't live in searching for the past. Figure out from what you know and what YOU have done. Not that weird ass sociopath of a scientist you were, but what you are and make sure that you're a better person for it." Cole leaned back as the bed creaked from his sudden shift in weight. "Anyways, why would you be worried about showing off?"

"Flesh eating monsters that kill humans for their guts and female warriors that kill said flesh eating monsters."

"Exactly, nothing to be afraid of at all."

Alex face palmed for a bit as he rubbed his head. "That's not the point, the point is –"

"We're helping them."

"I never said we wouldn't,"

"Why do you have so much crap over showing off?"

"If we stay hidden, we won't have anything tailing us or actively trying to kill us."

"Who would want to kill two harmless super heroes that help the common man by killing Yoma? Yoma can't do shit to us anyways."

"The guys that profit from killing Yoma you dolt."

Cole jumped out of the bed. "What's your problem with those guys anyways? Every time you talk about them you keep grumbling about crap."

"I tend to have a hard time trusting shadowy military organizations that specialize in killing specific targets."

"Can you be a bit more clear, I kinda can't get _everything_ you say with one sentence."

"Let's just say that when I woke up from my amnesia, the city started getting infected with a viral outbreak and a military organization attempted to contain the outbreak. When they failed they tried to nuke the city and I had to stop the nuke from going over the city and stop the outbreak."

Cole sighed as he ruffled his hair, "Fine, fine. You got your history and I got mine. I'll be stealthy."

"Thank you, Macgrath."

"But if there are lives at stake, I will blow my cover and I expect you to do the same."

"Don't worry, you'll be surprised what I can do when I don't blow my cover." Alex remarked as his body rippled with tendrils.

"Well, then." Cole replied, "We got one bitch ass demon to hunt."

* * *

Basically I want the relationship between Cole and Alex to be one of mutual respect. I hope that through this story, they grow to change their faults as well as heal their past wounds.

And No **_THIS IS NOT A YAOI FIC_**

**Thanks for reading Everyone**

**Please Review once again.**

**:D**


	4. The Hunt

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords Chapter 3

The Hunt

Also Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**Thanks for the reviews everyone**

**Please keep reviewing and I'll keep writing. They really do help motivate me.**

* * *

"Macgrath" Alex said as he sat down in a seat.

"Hmm," Cole responded while drinking.

"I thought the word subtlety would be something that you would at least have a basic understanding of."

"Hey, I didn't say I'd be subtle, I said I would be stealthy and, damn-it, bars are stealthy."

Alex face-palmed. It had been an hour since they left the room and it was about midday. He had been looking around for any source of the Yoma, but it was a bitch to find. While he could tell the difference between Yoma and human, the problem was finding the person who was the Yoma in the first place. The village was decently sized and, as he preferred a more subtle approach to finding his targets, he couldn't just wreck the place and find the Yoma that way.

On the other hand, from what Alex could tell, Cole had clearly been drinking some liquor. The new environment had piqued his curiosity and the new drinks, as well as food, tempted him. Time wasted Alex thought.

"How much of our money did you even spend?" Alex hiss as his voice came to a quieter hiss.

"Seven of the stick thingys"

"SEVEN!" Alex exclaimed as silently as possible. "You spent more money on the food than the damn room!"

"Hey hey, calm down," Cole said as he reassured Alex.

"WHY, I can't just kill someone and steal their money especially since I agreed to your terms," Alex hissed, "Do you even have any real reason, as to why you're doing this? What happened to doing things the hero way?"

"First off I've got a damn good tolerance to alcohol."

"Oh that's absolutely wonderful," Alex spat back. "How the hell does that help find the damn Yoma."

"Let me finish," Cole lifted his drink and finished the beverage in one swoop. "Mmmm, Ok. the second thing, a Claymore's coming to the village."

"WAIT WHAT," Alex exclaimed. "How does that help us?"

"From what I could gather, the Yoma freaks always attack at night," Cole paused for a bit. He beat his chest with one fist and a small burp came out. "-cuse me. Anyways, the Claymore is gonna get here today and she'll just get rid of it for us. If we stay out of her way, no one gets hurt and we don't get caught up in the crossfire."

Alex leaned back and looked at him in shock and wonder. "Wait, where the hell was your damn enthusiasm before."

"Ehh, don't worry about it," Cole waved his hand in reassurance. "You said you wanted us to be undercover right? Well, since the Claymore's gonna get here, I don't think we're gonna have any more deaths before she finds it. They work fast I hear."

Alex sighed before he continued, "I appreciate the consideration on my feelings, but I think we're going to have some issues with that plan of yours."

Cole paused for a bit as he looked back at Alex. Cole set his drink down, studying Alex's face.

"What do you mean?"

"I think there's more than one Yoma in the town."

Cole stared at Alex whose deadpan expression seethed with seriousness.

"How many are there?"

"At least four or five," Alex answered. "That Claymore is gonna have a run for her money if she faces them all down."

"Shit, then we gotta work fast."

"I know. Finding five Yoma is going to be difficult in it of itself. But we're going to have to work fast anyways."

"What do you mean?"

"Once that Claymore gets into town, we have to avoid her at all costs. If we alert her of our presence or powers, she might be able to tell her damn organization everything."

Cole expression immediately changed into shock. The Claymore, that was once going to be the two's saving grace from violent afternoon, was now going to be an obstacle. If she was too much of an obstacle . . .

"If she does find out, I'm not going to let her live Macgrath," Alex spoke as if he read Cole mind. "I'm not letting anyone know a thing about us."

"Don't assume the worst on the get go Mercer."

"Better to assume and be prepared than unprepared and out of place."

Cole growled a bit, "Let's just find the freaks before they do any damage,"

Cole stood up as did Mercer and they quickly moved out of the bar, only to be greeted by a crowd of people. The group was facing an entrance of the town where soon the two found themselves facing as well. From a distance, the two saw a beautiful wispy woman about five and a half feet tall. She had a pageboy haircut and wore armor on her shoulders, waist, wrists, and feet. The most noticeable trait, however, was the large sword that she carried, indicating her Claymore status.

The appearance of the Claymore suprised the two men. They had expected a malformed monster that took orders like a drone, but instead they saw a beautiful figure dressed in light medieval armor. Despite her appearance, however, the two quickly tore their gaze away from the woman and moved away from the crowd and towards the most recent kill site.

As they moved through the crowd, the two men heard the crowd whisper things about the Claymore.

"Look her eyes are silver"

"Yea, why do you think their called silver eyed witches?"

"I really just hope that she doesn't go after us"

"Well, she does have some Yoma in her so you can't be too careful."

In some sense, they could feel for the Claymore, who offered to kill creatures of death for the rest of her life and gain no sympathy or respect. It reminded Cole of his time in New Marias whenever he spotted a group of civilians demonizing him. It reminded Alex of his entire experience in the NYZ where despite his attempts in curing the virus, they public feared him and the military attacked him in whatever which way. Eventually, they found themselves at the edge of the crowd and they both moved out of sight. What they didn't notice, however, was the Claymore's silver eyes as it followed the two's movements around the corner.

The blood was quite dry at this point and some of pools of blood were starting to peel from the surface of the floor. Cole walked up to the body as Alex watched the Conduit do his thing. Cole felt some residing energy around the area and started to gather it. It was quite faint but eventually it gain substance and he felt himself receive a flashback.

* * *

_~Flashback~_

"_Oh GOD Please DON'T NOoOo, -Aggghhh, ohh please help, a- . . ."_

_A gurgling voice was all that came out soon the beasts were on him. His guts were spill and the man soon felt his life slipping away. There were five beasts that surrounded him._

"_**Oh, yes. His guts were SUPERB**__"_

"_**I could just keep hunting these humans forever**__"_

"_**Oh yea, did you get any news on the Claymore**__"_

"_**Yes, the town still thinks there's only one Yoma here.**__"_

"_**Good Good, heh heh heh, we'll kill the claymore then start killing the rest of the villagers off. That silver eye freak won't know what hit her.**__"_

"_**She's going to get here tomorrow, that's when we'll strike.**__"_

_The monstrous humanoids swiftly moved and the soon the memory faded._

_~~~Flashback End~~~_

* * *

Cole found himself staring at the body and as he turned around. The green ghostly apparitions soon tore his gaze.

"You ok? You looked like your mind was in a whole 'nother place."

"Yea, I guess you know how it looks now when you start remembering memories that aren't yours."

Alex stared in wonder as Cole continued, "If someone's died, I can actually relive the moment that they died and detect the residual energy of the killers. By the way, you were right. There are five and I got all of their locations."

Alex smirked realizing their luck. "Good, let's get to work in getting rid of these freaks."

* * *

Inside the office of the town's Chief, an older man sat in his chair. The many wrinkles and ripples on his face presented his age and the sweat that had appeared on said wrinkles glistened. His face turned into a nervous smile as he came face to face with the claymore. Her eyes were cold. A silver eye witch indeed.

"Uhhmmm, here's the payment for your services," The old man stuttered barely containing his fear. "Please, you can check it's all there."

The cold gaze of the claymore pierced his face and moved as he felt it cutting through his body.

"No,"

The old man went wide eyed. Did she just deny her services? Luckily it was not the case as the Claymore continued to speak in the same cold tone as before.

"Once the job is complete, a representative will come by and collect it. I can't accept payment myself"

The chief found himself barely able to stand as he spoke. "O-Ok. Whatever you say."

Surprisingly the Claymore started to elaborate, to the chief's horror. "It means if I fail you and die in the process, you are not obligated to pay anything."

Her words shook him. So close to death and so accepting of such conditions. It made him shake.

"Oh, I understand." He uttered. His fear got the best of him as he decided to speak again, this time to ask a question. "So what do you think? Will you be able to find the Yoma today or maybe tomorrow?"

"Of course, that will depend on the Yoma," The claymore answered still in her emotionless tone. "If it's taking extra care to hide its yoki, then it can prove difficult. Eventually, either its corpse or mine will wind up in the streets of your village."

The Claymore started to turn as the chief stood still. The claymore stopped, however, and spoke in a questioning tone. "I would also like to know something. Has there been any suspicious figures lately?"

The question racked him as he struggled to remember if anyone had appeared lately. Suddenly a memory struck him, "Y-YES, um yes, one of the local innkeepers told me about two strange figures that took a room even though there was a Cla- I mean Yoma."

The Claymore stood in place and turned her head back to the chief, "I see, thank you for your assistance," and with that she walked out the door.

As soon as she left the door, the chief fell to his knees as his wife came to his aid.

"My god that was my first Claymore," He muttered, he could barely continue speaking as he felt his life lose a couple years. "I was expecting her to be more human but . . . but she . . . was . . . just like a monster."

* * *

The Claymore walked down the street and watched as the streets cleared for her. No sane human would not steer clear from her silvery gaze. Women picked up their children, men moved towards their houses, shops were cleared and soon the street had become completely empty. This Claymore's name was Claire. She had always preferred this lonely feeling. She could always work better alone than with someone else or when there were other around her for that matter. The quiet streets comforted her, but she still had some bits of sorrow in her heart.

Soon she reached the scene of the crime and she could tell others had been here. She recalled the two strange figures that went around the corner as she entered the town, remembering how they had acted. As she looked at the dried blood, she could smell a scent that came from some portions of the blood. The smells were foreign, like they didn't belong. As much as she didn't like a lack of information, this would have to do. At that, she sprinted down the road that the scent was leading to.

Claire was going to find these Yoma because she was a Claymore.

And that's what Claymores did.

* * *

The second Yoma that they found had not died as easily as the first one they found. The first one had been milling about inside a random house. It had no idea that it was being hunted until two men crashed into the door and immediately attacked him. Two blasts of electrical energy hit the creature's chest sending it in to 'shock' (Cole had laughed at that for a bit before Alex told him to shut up).

After consuming the first one, Alex managed to easily locate another one of the Yoma that were hidden. This one had sensed his brother die and was far more prepared. However, after attempting to fling a table only for it to come back towards him, the Yoma soon let his guard down and was also promptly consumed.

Alex swiftly searched the creature's memories and had gotten nothing. The two men still had no idea where the ambush would take place. The leader had everything planned and he would be the one to send the signal to kill the Claymore.

Because they had no information on where the next Yoma was, both Cole and Alex ran towards the scene of the crime again.

"So let me get this straight," Alex said as they ran down the stone path. "You can only locate the killers by going back to the scene of the crime?"

"Yea, I know it's tedious, but hopefully, one of the guys will have some info on the next guys' location."

Soon the afternoon sun turned into an orange glow as the sun started to set. Cole and Alex was about to turn the corner when Alex spotted something and pulled Cole back. The Claymore was resting next to the crime scene and FACING TOWARDS THEM.

'_Crap, how the hell did she know we were here?_' Alex thought.

Alex narrowed his eyes as he attempted to figure out how she had found their trail. He sniffed a bit to clear his nostrils and realized he smelled blood. He turned to Cole and whispered as quickly as he could.

"Macgrath, do you have any blood on you?"

Cole searched himself. There wasn't any sort of blood that she could see at first, but then he lifted his shoes and checked his soles. The soles had a faint hint of dried blood from the scene of the crime.

"Shit," Cole exclaimed. Alex looked at him furiously.

"How the hell did you get blood on your shoes from a crime scene?!" Alex hissed.

"I wasn't paying attention, I'm sorry. Damn."

The sound of shifting metal caught their attention as the realized the sound got closer. They formulated a plan and started to move. The sound of the metal clanks quickened as Claire started to run to the hiding spot. She knew where they were and were just about to find them as soon came face to face with . . . nothing.

She stared at the last known position and looked around. The scent had disappeared and the only thing that was left was a slightly cool breeze that brushed up against her skin. She took one last look around and went back to her spot. She knew they would come back, so why move?

Up on top of a roof, Cole and Alex laid back down against the stony tiles. Cole had managed to quickly ice jump up to the roof and the ice had luckily melted before the Claymore had reached their position. Cole breathed a sigh of relief and Alex still continued to glare at him.

"Great job, how are we supposed to get to there now?!"

Alex had now flipped through his vision and identified the living being that stayed near the crime scene. The claymore was now firmly stuck between them and where they needed to go and from the looks of it, she wasn't going anywhere for a while. Alex grumbled as Cole spoke.

"If she's gonna stay there, we may as well stay here." Alex gave a questioning look before Cole continued, "Look, those Yoma were gonna ambush her. We may as well just wait here and watch over her."

Alex looked at his fellow traveler with surprise, "When in the hell were we ever going to help the damn Claymore?"

"When you agreed to go it my way remember."

"I agreed to killing Yoma and staying away from the Claymore, not helping her stay alive." Alex snarled.

Alex turned away from Cole in frustration. He shook his head from side to side wondering what was going on in Cole's head. Fortunately Cole answered quickly yet firmly. "You heard all those guys. They all feared her and demonized her even though she came to help those people. Don't you know hate that feeling? To be hated by the people you protect."

Alex turned around and walked towards Cole, pointing at him accusingly. "This shit again. It's always gonna be about you and your dead girlfriend isn't it."

Cole narrowed his eyes and stared, "Mercer, don't try to pin the blame on me or Trish. You know how this feels."

Alex rushed up to Cole and raised Cole by the collars of his shirt, "Bullshit. I've always had to care for me and me only. Every other living shit has been an insect compared to me. I've never relied on ANYONE and I definitely don't need any heroic support now."

Cole stayed calm and looked into Alex's eyes, "You don't have anyone you cared for?"

"No one,"

"Then you're no better than a monster,"

"I guess I am then," Alex sneer. He let Cole go and stared back at him. "I guess I am a monster."

Cole looked at him for a bit, "Wasn't there anyone there to give you that chance. Someone that still believed you were human."

Alex opened his mouth to speak but no words could be found. He found himself in a bind as soon as he thought of Dana. While Alex wasn't human, Dana had found every reason to believe that he was. No matter what had happened, Dana was there to comfort him. But now, she was gone. Stuck on another world, stuck in a coma, and stuck with a Doctor that he didn't fully trust. He really was a monster.

Cole watched as the viruses features changed from a scowl to a sorrowful expression with guilt. Cole walked over the Alex and placed an arm around the virus. "Who was it?" Cole questioned in an understanding tone.

Alex looked down towards his feet as he whispered, "Dana. She was Alex's sister and the only person that still believed that I had something left."

Alex walked away from Cole as he continued on, "I guess I really am a monster Macgrath. I couldn't even protect the one person that I could give any damn about," Alex gave a small chuckle. "How can I protect some random person on the street when I can't protect the one I do care for?"

That was when Cole stopped him. "You practice,"

Alex gave a glance at him, "What?"

"Do you think I was a hero day one? Hell, I even told you that my first reasons for being a hero were to impress Trish," Cole swallowed a bit before continuing. "It was hard, but I learned to be a real hero in the end. I just kept acting like a hero, doing heroic things and then finally, I just lived with my heroics through and through."

"What does that even mean?"

Cole took out his amp and the silver tuning fork shaped metal rod flashed blue with electricity. "Alex, are you a monster. Did you ever believe yourself to be some flesh eating psychopath?"

"No?"

"Did you care for Dana,"

". . . yes."

"Would you do anything to make her proud,"

Alex closed his eyes and shook his head, "yes, but whats that got to do with-"

"Be a hero,"

Alex flinched a bit before Cole continued, "be the best damn hero you can god damn be. Even if you fall a couple times trying, even if you did failed someone else, and even if you had to sacrifice yourself. . . Be A Damn Hero."

Cole stared into the virus' eyes and asked him, "do you accept?"

A long silence fell through only to be punctuated by the electrical static of the amp. A solid minute passed before Alex answered in a quiet whisper and a smile.

"Yea, I do."

Cole smiled, "Good, then I want you to know this," Cole lowered his amp as he moved in closer, "Even though this ain't our world or anyone we know, we got a duty as heroes to be the best heroes we can be."

"All life is precious and any bastard that tries to tell you otherwise can shove it up their ass. We got powers that people can only dream of. We were given these things for a greater purpose than just sitting our asses and hoping for the best. We need to be damn symbols for everyone show everyone that we can be symbols."

The silver amp soon attached to Cole back and, at the same time, Cole moved towards the edge of the roof. "Let's go be damn heroes."

Alex smiled and chuckled in confidence. "Cole," the conduit faced him as the virus continued, "Thank you for believing in my humanity"

Cole watched Alex. Even though Alex smiled, Cole could tell that there was sadness in his expression.

"Cole,"

"Yea?"

"Call me Alex,"

"And?"

Alex smirked, "Lets go be damn heroes"

The two men smiled at each other, their new found confidence as heroes fueling their enthusiasm. Suddenly, the two men changed their expression as they felt a hostile energy signature. The flash of Yoki was large and noticeable to the point where even they could determine the location easily. The Yoma had begun to move.

* * *

**Ok time for some explaining. The reason why I wanted Alex and Cole to sort of have these arguments now was because I wanted them to be heroes. Cole is easy to understand but Alex is hard to shift into a hero role. He mostly massacred people for the hell of it and ate random bystanders to heal himself. Now that this has happened, you can expect Alex to take on a full hero role with him trying to actively save people lives rather than take them as collateral damage.**

**However, Alex will still prefer the more subtle stealth consume approach and still be a bit weary of Claymores. Cole will be a bit more of a free spirit and hopefully help Alex learn to just live life like a normal human himself.**

**I still haven't mentioned the pairings yet and I can't wait to set them up.**

**Thanks for reading everyone.**


	5. The Heroes

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords Chapter 4

The Heroes

Also Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**DAMN 16 reviews in three days. That's awesome.**

**Thanks for the reviews everyone. They really help motivate me**

**As for all your questions, please know that I don't like giving out spoilers. However, I will say that they will get stronger and fight guys that are not from the Claymore Universe. **

* * *

Night had now fallen as Claire moved through the streets with the pristine grace of an angel. Along the rooftops, our two heroes moved with as much ability as they had. Alex and Cole had no trouble finding their steps as the virus glided and jumped across large chasms with his superhuman abilities and Cole used his various abilities to jump as high and hover as far as the virus did.

As the two men ran across, Alex couldn't help but speak up.

"Hey, Cole," Alex shouted out.

Cole slightly surprised, answered nonetheless, "Hmm, yea?"

"Can't you go any faster? At this rate, she's gonna get there before we do."

Cole used his radar pulse and turned his head to the fast moving Claymore. Alex was right; she was FAST and, since they were taking the rooftop route, she was going to have no trouble getting there before they were.

"Hey, I'm going as fast as I can," Cole replied. "I've always used to grinding on electric wires to get around that I never really developed anything that would make me move faster."

Cole suddenly flashed to his fight with Kessler. Kessler had used an ability that made him move ridiculously fast, almost akin to teleporting

"Well, shit," Alex said frowning. Suddenly Alex's face changed to surprise as he stopped and looked around, "the hell? Where'd she go?"

"What?" Cole franticly used his radar pulse but and he could not find the same living pulse as before. The claymore's pulse had disappeared into the towns other pulses.

"Damn it. How the hell did you lose her?" Cole said accusingly.

"I've been trying to detect their Yoki," Alex responded, "Yoki's like the energy that Yoma and Claymore's use to enhance their abilities. The problem with using Yoki as a locator though is the fact that they can suppress it."

"Can't you use anything else?"

"No. The only time I can find them is when I have direct eye contact on them."

"Shit, we gotta move."

Cole leaped off the building and on to the street while Alex kept up in pace on the rooftops. When they reached the general location of the Yoki spike, the two gestured to each other and Cole climbed up as quietly as possible.

The short one story house that Cole climbed on seemed to radiate with Yoki. Cole again used his radar and felt three hostile presences in the building. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey," Cole whispered. Alex promptly moved silently next to him as Cole murmured into Alex's ear, "We got three guys there, there, and there." Cole pointed to the three positions.

"What about the Claymore?"

"She's not there."

"Ok then, let's make this quick. You take out one of them and I'll take the other two out."

Cole started to move, but doubled back his head when he heard Alex finish speaking, "Wait, why do you get two guys and I get one?"

"Is this really the best time to talk about this"

"Of course, it's the best time. Besides, you're kill-stealing."

"Cole, we got shit to kill here."

Their argument was interrupted, however, by the sound of extending fingers erupting from below them. Alex and Cole dodged the pathetic blows. Almost immediately, the three Yoma jumped out and faced the two heroes. The two heroes readied themselves instantly and gave off an aura of hostility.

"**What? How did these humans dodge our attacks?**" One of Yoma hissed.

The two men smirked. The Yoma had lost the element of surprise and, without it, the Yoma had no chance. Then again, they never really had any chance to begin with.

"You know, instead of talking, you should have at least tried to attack again." Cole said while brandishing his Amp.

"Cole, please. Let's give these guys a proper burial before we start making jokes." Alex responded with a smirk. He brandished his right arm that now had become a whip-fist.

Now most Yoma in this situation would have immediately tried to fight, but these were far smarter than your average, run-of-the-mill gut eaters. They were planners, thinkers, and intellectuals- well, in the loosest terms possible. These Yoma were patient enough to kill only as much as one Yoma would and smart enough to set-up an ambush for the Claymore. Their patience let them stop and smell the two strange individuals before them. The smell of charred and spilled Yoma blood had barely stained their clothes, just enough for the Yoma to smell it. Fear racked these creatures as they realized that they themselves were facing their own human-shaped monsters.

All three scattered for the road as quickly as their feet could take them. But one wasn't so lucky. Both a whip-fist and an electric tether grabbed it as it fell down and came back to the two men. Two punches were embedded into the creature's face and it dropped like a fly. Cole ran up and held it down with his Arc restraint.

"All right, it's time to tell subtlety to screw off," Cole yelled as he took off his cloak.

"Get the one running through streets, I'll go get the one that's jumping over the rooftops. Make sure it says alive, I wanna be able to consume them."

With that the two dashed off in opposite directions towards their intended target.

* * *

The Yoma that had been dashing down the street had seen what had happened to the grabbed Yoma.

'_**What the hell did those humans use?!**_'

A sound came from behind and the Yoma just barely ducked as several small bolts electrified a stone wall, leaving behind a charred mark. It turned around and saw one of the men that had confronted them on the rooftops. A strange light crackled around the strange weapon, which the Yoma could only assume was the source of the man's power, and the brightness illuminated the man smiling face.

"Hey, ready to dance punk?"

The Yoma looked to his sides and saw a door to its left. A devilish idea came to him as he dashed towards the door, breaking it down. The man followed him, just as he expected. Luckily for the Yoma, a man was sitting by a fire reading a book. It only took a couple of seconds for the Yoma to grab the sitting man and use him as a shield. His armed chaser had backed up as the Yoma hauled the human shield with an evil grin.

"_**NOW THEN HUMAN,**_" The Yoma squealed in delight, "_**you're mine.**_"

Strangely the man was still smiling, "Whoa, man. Don't talk too much or you'll kill your hostage with your breath."

The Yoma was shocked at his reply, "_**Sh-Shu-SHUT UP, you think you can scare me?**_"

The two combatants stared at each other, watching each other's movements. The man that held the shining metal stick looked as confident as ever while the Yoma was starting to sweat. The shining stick would probably do a number on him; he had to make him get rid of it. Out of the blue, a child opened the door, woken up by the noises and the Yoma saw his ticket.

His hand shot out as his finger extended quickly towards the child. In a split second, the Yoma's index and ring finger flew right by the child's throat as the middle finger hovered next to it threatening to pierce the esophagus.

"Daddy? Wha-what's happening?" The little girl's eyes started to tear up as she slowly realized what was happening.

"No, PLEASE not my daughter. Please let her go," the human shield pleaded.

The man tensed as he saw this and the Yoma could tell that his ploy was working.

"Let them go, ya freak," The man angrily growled. "You're crap's with me."

"_**Oh, that's not going to happen human,**_" the Yoma squealed as laughed in delight. "_**Put that stick down and then we'll talk.**_"

The man slowly did so as the Yoma commanded and the creature continued with a grin on his face. "_**Kick it over here.**_"

The stick did so, on command and the Yoma shrieked in delight. "_**And now, YOU'RE DEAD.**_"

The creature threw his human shield away and released his fingers as he ran towards the man. The Yoma snarled for blood as he aimed his arm to decapitate the man. However, when his finger reached the man's face, he only felt air. The man had ducked his below his hand and delivered a powerful knee to his stomach causing the Yoma to lose his footing and his breath.

The powerful knee rendered the creature dazed and the Yoma crashed down with his back on the ground. The Yoma immediately felt a hand clench over his throat. As the Yoma's vision focus, he found himself staring into a pair of glowing blue eyes.

"You shoulda just ran away and lived another day." The man's voice was full of loathing and hatred. "But now you gotta deal with me, and I don't show mercy to child-killing sons-a-bitches."

Cole's body then flashed with angry blue electricity that quickly travelled through the Yoma's flesh. The Yoma screeched as it felt every nerve on its body scream in pain. The heat from the electricity started to boil its blood, brains, and eyes and the eyes soon popped from the extreme heat. The Yoma's brain melted as its final thoughts ran through its head.

And then, it was dead. The Yoma was a charred mess after Cole had given the most painful thing that he could think of at that moment and the heightened senses also helped with the torture. With the Yoma dead, Cole looked towards the two innocent bystanders and walked towards him. The man rushed up to his knees and bowed without any delay.

"Thank the goddesses, You saved my daughter."

Cole walked around the man and took a look at his daughter, who was still shaken. The child stared in Cole's eyes as he knelt down in front of her.

"Hey, you ok?"

The child looked in fascination. The man's now blue eyes were a brown and his face was gentle yet heroic. There was only one thought in her mind at that point.

"Are you an Angel?"

Cole sweated a bit, but smiled nonetheless, "Um, I . . . guess."

The girl's face brightened and Cole soon found two small arms wrapped around him.

"Thank you, Mister Angel."

Cole couldn't help but grin. Was this what it was like to have a child? The thought didn't leave him and it even grew as the man picked up his daughter and placed her head on his chest.

"Oh, Goddess. I thought I lost you."

The child and man started to weep in each other's arms as Cole stared on happy, yet . . . sad. It was almost a small window into the life that he could have had, one with a child and a wife that loved him. The thought, however, quickly left him when the older gentleman looked at Cole, eyes filled with appreciation.

"I can't thank you enough sir. Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Cole walked to his amp and carefully looked over it. After he could tell there was no damage, he placed it on his back and turned to the man.

"Hey, I'm always glad to help," Cole said with a smirk.

The man watched his daughter's savior leave the door. The swift pace of a warrior was clearly shown through the gentle visage as the man could swear he saw a glow come from Cole's body.

'_An Angel of Hope_', he thought.

* * *

The other Yoma had been snickering as it jumped from rooftop to rooftop. His other two Yoma companions were as good as dead. No human would ever catch up with him. The strange and random buildings were far too random for humans to navigate and, with the way he was going, no human would ever be able to jump over the spaces he was going over.

But that changed when he heard a thump right next to him. As the Yoma turned his head, he saw one of the men that had confronted him. It surprised the Yoma immediately.

"_**YOU! How did you follow me?**_"

The hooded man shrugged, "I ran," he said nonchalantly.

The atmosphere was tense. The Yoma instantly sensed something was wrong. Yoma were always on top of the food chain and always the hunters of humans. So why was it that this hooded man making him feel fear?

'_**It's a façade. H-He's a monster!**_'

The Yoma stepped back, "_**Wha-what the hell are you. You can't be human.**_"

The man laughed, but it wasn't a human laugh. No, this laugh was the laugh of a demon, "Oh ho ho ho, . . . You're . . . damn . . . right." The hooded figure said as he licked his lips. The Yoma was now cowering in fear. "I'm not human, no, I'm a monster and a far scarier one than you."

The Yoma watched as the man's body morphed into an armored carapace of sorts. There was no face now, only a black mask that showed no emotion. On the right arm of the . . . for the lack of better terms, monstrous armored creature was a large blade that looked so sharp that the Yoma swore that it could cut him just by thinking about it. That was when the Yoma ran and run it did for its life.

Alex just smirked as the Yoma tried to escape, "Good, I like it when my prey moves."

The Yoma ran as fast as it could and in every way it could, but, no matter what it did, the armored beast was on its tail. The hollow laugh from the monster echoed in the Yoma's head as it moved. Eventually, Alex had enough and ran right in front of the creature, slamming the blade down in an attempt to cut the Yoma. Unfortunately, the Yoma barely dodged and the blade came crashing down on to the roof. With the added weight of the armor form and the force of the blade hitting the roof, the aforementioned roof collapsed and the two stumbled upon a family eating dinner.

Alex had now landed on his back and had changed out of his armored form, but the Yoma had already sprinted towards one of the inhabitants. When Alex stood up, he saw two frightened adults stuck in a corner on his right and two equally scared pair, a Yoma and child, on his left. The Yoma spoke to the Armored Alex.

"_**S-Stay back,**_" It said in a guttural scared voice. "_**I'll kill her and the parents too.**_"

Alex looked at the child's face. From what he could tell, she seemed to be about ten or twelve years old. Her eyes were not tearing up but they were still full of fear. Her brown eyes looked to his almost pleaded for safety.

Alex smirked as he took a step forward, "No."

"_**Wh-What?**_"

Alex took another step forward, "You think you can scare me by threatening to kill someone. Don't you know who I am?"

The monster tensed as Alex stepped forward again, "You called me a monster, remember. Guess what . . . you were right."

Two more steps and the Yoma was sweating like a river, the monster wasn't going to stop anytime soon. "I've killed so many lives, eaten so many people, remembered every detail on how I killed them, and you think you can scare me with this."

Soon Alex was only a table length away as he continued and, at this point, the Yoma realized that Alex's eyes glowed a dark, blood red, "Even if you threatened genocide on an entire nation . . . I'd just join in on the fun and add you to the slaughter."

At this the Yoma dashed toward Alex's side, hoping to run, but alas it was for not. The Yoma soon found himself in Alex's grasp and flung towards the wall. The virus, still holding on to the Yoma's neck, craned his gaze towards the girl.

"Hey," he said in a dark tone. "You ok, kid."

The child nodded and Alex looked back at the Yoma. Fear crept up to its eyes as the virus looked back at the girl and asked her again. "You wanna make this fucker, suffer."

The child looked at him; her mouth was slightly agape, but only for a second. Her eye narrowed as she nodded her head up and down. She was angry and wanted payment for his crimes. Alex only smirked as he looked back at the now horrified Yoma.

"Well, then here goes."

The man brought his unused arm towards the Yoma's right arm and pulled hard. However, he didn't take it out all the way, no, he pulled it slowly, but pulled consistently just to make sure the Yoma would feel every sinew, tissue, and muscle fiber rip away from him. After about a minute, the Yoma finally felt release as the arm was torn clean off, but it was not the end for him.

After about five minutes, Alex Mercer had now taken on a new name for himself, torturer. The Yoma now had no limbs and had now lost parts flesh where a human's stomach should have been. At this point, the torturing virus now was carving the names of the three individuals in the room. When the final letter was written the Yoma finally stopped screaming. It wasn't dead but it was still crying.

"Funny, I guess monsters can cry." Alex said as he lifted his leg. When it dropped, it crushed the creature's heart and his tendrils soon surrounded the half dead body and consumed it.

The two adults were still scared, but then again who would be. The child on the other hand walked up to him and stared straight to his face. "Thank you,"

Alex stood in surprise, "What?"

"My mommy and daddy were the first to be eaten by those monsters. Aunty and Uncle took me in." She pointed towards the two now less frightened adults. "I-I watched th-them die. They just kept eating Mommy and making her suffer."

Tears started to stain the child's cheeks. Her voice trembled as she spoke, "_I co-couldn't f-for-forget their faces and the-their scr-eams. No one help-h-elped._"

She wiped her tears and calmed herself down before she spoke again. She looked back at the virus with determined and grateful eyes, "Thank you for avenging my parents . . . Mister Angel."

Alex scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, "Um . . . yea. Your welcome, kid."

The child's aunt and uncle walked forward to the child, "Um, thank you s-sir, but could you p-please—"

He raised his hands and gestured, "Ah, um yea, I'll go."

"WAIT," the child said. She ran up to Alex as she gave him a hug. He recoiled a bit but settled down when she let go. "Is it true what you said?"

Alex raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"That, you killed people."

"Yea,"

"Do you regret it?"

". . ." Alex could only pause at this. Was he really regretful for all he had killed? Many of his victims were Blackwatch soldiers but there were far too many other victims to count. Not only did he have to count the civilians he consumed, he also had to think of the collateral damage he caused. All the loved ones he killed, all the ties he severed, all the pain he caused, it was all starting to hit him.

But, if Cole had taught him anything, however, he was going to have to learn from his mistakes and his regrets. What he did do was wrong, but now he could redeem himself.

'_As a hero, huh._'

His darker tendencies would still show, but, like Cole had said, he still had a long way to go before he was perfect.

The virus facial expression changed to a sad smile. "I guess I do regret some things."

The child smiled at him, "Then you're not a monster,"

Alex couldn't help but smile, "Thanks, kid." And he walked out the door.

The two adults caressed the child and started to comfort her, but the child kept staring at Alex's back. The strange tribal design on his jacket reminded her of angel wings and gave off a red glow.

'_So, he is an angel,_' She thought. '_An Angel of Death_'

* * *

The moon started to fall downward as the two men finished their kills. Our two heroes swiftly moved from rooftop to rooftop and quickly found each other.

"Um, Alex." Cole said chuckling a bit.

"What?" Alex said still contemplating his previous thoughts.

The conduit jokingly gestured to the burned body of his kill, "You like fried Yoma?"

"Cole," Alex said flatly while staring at Cole. "I don't eat dead stuff."

"Meh," he shrugged as he tossed the fried Yoma away.

"Shouldn't you get rid of the body a bit better?"

"Oh, crap," He turned around and went back tethering the body back towards him.

"Imagine if someone found that in their laundry."

"That . . . that would be pretty damn funny."

A silence fell over as the moon moved ever closer down to the ground. Cole broke it, however, with a modest question.

"So, what do you think happened to the Claymore?"

"I actually don't know," Alex answered, "When, I ate the guy I followed apparently they were still waiting for her when we showed up."

Cole raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Wait, what?"

"Yea, she never got there," Alex paused for a bit before continuing. "Maybe we'll get something from the one we got back at the building."

"Yea,"

Eventually, they reached the location where they had initial found the three, but, when they looked around, they found that the Yoma was nowhere to be found.

"The hell, he was restrained right here." Cole exclaimed.

"Were those built for humans?" Alex asked, "Cause if they are, it kinda make sense that they can break through that stuff."

"Crap," Cole walked around a bit with his hand massaging his head. "Now, we gotta look for that freak's ass."

Suddenly, the two heard a small tap on the rooftops that made them look up. The Yoma had appeared and it readied itself to attack the two men. The two readied themselves, fully preparing to fight off the Yoma they had just captured.

What they did not prepare for, nor did the Yoma for that matter, was a graceful woman appearing right next to the Yoma. The sword flashed as the Yoma turned his head, just to see himself get cut in half.

"Damn," Cole remarked

"Shit," Alex said in agreement.

The Claymore landed . . . as did the Yoma's body. The blood fell on top of the two heroes, but only Cole yelled out.

"Ah, crap," Cole spoke in disgust. The blood was smelly, like oil and guts mixed together.

"Oh, calm down Cole. It's just blood," Alex responded. The virus' eyes were still locked on the Claymore.

From a distance, the Claymore was good looking and, now that the duo saw her face to face, she seemed to be chillingly beautiful. Her eyes were indeed silver, with a gaze that pierced their own eyes. With a swift motion, the Claymore also demonstrated her ability to wield a sword as she flicked the giant blade down to remove the blood of her recent kill. Cole and Alex watched the delicate and beautiful warrior speak.

"As grateful as I am for what you two have done, I'm going to have to know who you are."

The mood was tense and serious and both men shifted nervously. From Alex's Yoma memories, Claymores were still an unknown factor as they were known to easily slaughter Yoma almost as fast as they could.

'_How long has she been hiding?_' Alex thought, '_If she's how we fight, then we'll be going in blind with her at the advantage._'

Cole on the other hand was a lot less serious. "Hey, Alex. We must be damn good to get that lady's attention. She is HOT!"

Alex elbowed him slightly, "The hell do you think you're doing?" Alex hissed

"Lightening the mood," Cole quipped.

The Claymore was still unfazed and still staring at them intently. "Please answer my question, who are you and why are you here."

Cole smirked as he began to introduce himself, "Alright then, I'm Macgrath, Cole Macgrath and this grump over here is Alex Mercer," Cole gestured to him and the virus sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Ok, then," the claymore said in her cold tone, "Why are you here?"

Cole smiled a bit before he continued, "Well, ya see miss. Me and my friend here—"

"My friend and I," Alex interrupted with a smug look on his face.

"Shut up," Cole retorted back, "Anyways, us two were looking for a place to stay when we heard that a Yoma was around here. The thing is, we're what you call . . . hero material."

Claire cocked her head slightly, showing an interested expression, "Go on."

"Well, we found out that the one Yoma was actually five so we decided to help," Cole raised his arms with a smile.

The Claymore now raised an eyebrow, "Why didn't you just tell me about the other four then?"

"Uh, we just felt that we could take some of the crap you had to deal with."

She paused for a moment and studied their faces before she spoke again, "How did you deal with the other four Yoma."

"That's," Cole said nervously while scratching his neck "something we'd prefer to keep secret."

That was when Alex decided to butt in, "In other words, we don't trust shifty organizations that experiment on women to fight monsters more efficiently."

Cole turned to Alex slightly surprised, and ultimately turn back to the beautiful warrior, "What, he said."

Clare looked at the two men and closed her eyes slowly as she went through her mindscape. Helping random people and hiding from the organization? It seemed . . . familiar.

'_Teresa_'

That name had a lot of mean. A past of certain potential that was now gone in a sea of events that took her away and made her into a Claymore.

"I see," the Claymore said still cold, "As a warrior of the organization, I am obligated to tell my superiors about you."

The two men shifted a bit from the uncomfortable news.

"But I think I understand your position." She continued. Her body shifted as she faced away from them and started walking off. The duo let out a breath of relief. It seemed as if all was good.

"You may want to leave though," the claymore said again. "Yoma tend to not go back to towns with their dead."

Cole smiled at this, "HEY LADY,"

The Claymore turned around and could see his beaming face.

"Mind tellin us your name?"

The Claymore stared for a second and turned around. Alex was about to comment about Cole's rejection when the Claymore spoke again "It's Clare and thank you...for your help" she replied. Her voice seemed cold but her eyes seemed to say she was thankful for more than just their help.

With that, she jumped off the roof and disappeared from their sight. Cole could only whistle at what he had just seen.

"*Phew* she is pretty as hell."

"Meh, she was . . . interesting to look at," Alex agreed.

"Bullshit, you were gawking at her ass when she left."

"No, I wasn't," Alex calmly responded. "And last I checked, you were the one that was so mesmerized by her to ask for her name."

"Hey, I'll admit . . . she's cute." Cole said as he began to move.

"Whatever Cole, let's just go before she changes her mind"

With that the duo ran to their inn and grabbed their stuff.

* * *

At the front of the village, the sun was starting to lift up into the sky and reveal the bright blue ocean above. Two men watched the sky as it lit up and spoke to each other about the dawn.

"Hey Alex,"

"Yea,"

"I remember something that my friend Zeke used to say whenever I got his ass out to see the sunset."

"What was it?"

"He always said that when he saw the sun rise up, it was like a new beginning for him you know. A fresh start."

Alex looked on with the beams of light warming his face, "A fresh start, huh?" He remarked.

"Yea, let's start off fresh," Cole was beaming like the sun at this point. "We got sights to see, people to meet, and Yoma asses to kick."

"Sorry Cole," the virus responded. "But I think the only think that works for me on that list is the last one."

It was at that moment where Cole put his arm around Alex's shoulder and noogied him with his other hand.

"Well, let's get you living life like you should be livin it."

"Aghh, get off me!"

The two figures walked down the road and looked on for the adventures to come.

* * *

Clare had just finished her business with the Chief. Despite the fact that there was five yoma, because she only killed one, she let the village off the hook. The scared yet somewhat grateful eyes of the mayor closed as he breathed a breath of relief. Clare could feel the glares from the villagers when she left the Chief's home. One day was enough apparently for this village and she quickly set herself out to leave.

When she reached the entrance, however, a little girl came up to her, "Did you meet the angel?"

Clare was surprised, not only by the girl's comment but also by her willingness to get so close, "Angel?"

The girl nodded her head, "An angel saved me last night from a big Yoma."

Clare went wide-eyed when she heard this, "Wait, did he have a shaved head and wield a metal stick?"

"Yup, daddy said he glowed like an angel." The girl turned around and walked. "Bye bye Mrs. Claymore."

Clare stood there as she took in the information. She tried to remember his name when his name struck her.

'_Cole Macgrath_'

The man had gone out of his way to save two lives from being devoured and had the humanity of an angel apparently. She moved her feet as she thought about the strange man that had considered her a . . . lady. A human even.

_HEY LADY . . ._ _Mind tellin us your name?_

A small smile came over Clare's face as she thought of Cole Macgrath.

* * *

**Alright then**

**Thanks for reading please review, they help me write.**

**Alex is still not used to being a hero and since Cole wasn't around to tell him what to do, he took the risk in doing what he did best, intimidation. Besides, its fun to write a sadistic Alex**

**BTW I guess this is the first hint to pairings in the story.**

**Also, I'm going to go out and be open about this. This story is NOT A HAREM FIC. I HATE HAREM FICS. Harems = Mary sue basically for me. They are boring and pointless. With a one on one relationship, the two individuals usually have something called character arcs and do things like character development.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and feel free to ask any questions.**

**Also, if anyone can suggest Alex's pairing and give me a reason for it, then I just might make it so.**

**Another note: I like what Laluzi did. If you guys would like, can you give me your favorite lines in this fic? It really helps me understand what you guys like and what I should keep.**

**Thanks for criticisms and all guys cya later.**

**UPDATE: THANKS ALLON you totally made sense and I made some changes. *Thumbs Up* :D**


	6. The Detour

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords Chapter 5

The Detour

Also Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**RAWRS MOAR REVIEWS. That's awesome.**

**Thanks for the reviews everyone. They really help motivate me**

**As for all your questions, please know that I don't like giving out spoilers. However, I will say that they will get stronger and fight guys that are not from the Claymore Universe.**

* * *

It had been quite a number of days since they had last stopped at a town and, to Alex's dismay, it would be several hours before they would reach the next town. Alex couldn't help but rub his head. Cole had been pestering him about random variety of subjects that ranged from slightly annoying to downright "I-want-to-strangle-you" mind breaking. Cole's latest subject was no different.

"So, you don't take shits?" Cole asked. "Is it cause you don't want to or is it cause you can't."

Alex's eyes twitched, "MY GOD, DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO ASK THE STUPIDEST QUESTIONS!"

"Hey, it's not stupid to me." Cole replied seriously. Alex looked at the conduit blankly for a second before Alex face-palmed.

"If you really must know, I don't use the restroom because all the matter that I consume is stored up in my body."

Cole snickered, "Damn, you must be constipated as hell."

"Shut up, it's the same reason why you don't use the restroom either."

"What?" Cole said with serious curiosity.

"Yea, all the matter that you consume is directly turned into energy," Alex responded. "You expel that energy when you do all your fancy crap."

"Do I need to eat to get energy?"

"No," Alex said pondering. "The energy that you expel just gets rid of the excess energy that you get from the food. That fusion reaction in your body is what actually keeps you alive."

Cole nodded a bit as he gave thought to this new information. This was really why Cole had been pestering for so long. Alex was basically a walking encyclopedia of information that would put Wikipedia to shame. In fact, just half a day before, he had asked Alex for a recipe of strawberry shortcake.

'_Mmm, Cake,_' Cole thought as he rubbed his belly. The thought of the sweet delight had reminded him of happy times.

"Cole," Alex exclaimed roughly. "Think you can talk about something else and not something as stupid as bathroom habits?"

Cole couldn't help but smirk, "Yea, yea. I'll think of somethin' else."

The duo walked in silence for a while, to Alex's delight. Alex still had not been used to Cole's ramblings. Dana, his 'sister,' had never been much of a joker. Then again, when a city was almost infected by a viral outbreak, not many people could find it in themselves to joke around.

"Yo, Alex," Cole finally spoke.

"Yea?"

"What do you think about training?"

Alex paused. Training would be sort of nice, but in the end, it served no purpose. Any Yoma that would find against them would just end up slaughtered. Then again, the conduit always did have something else up his sleeve. "What are you proposing?"

"I was just thinking," Cole replied. "Do you have any powers that don't kill people?"

"No, what's the point."

Cole rubbed the back of his head, "I mean, we are going to fight normal people eventually. You even said yourself that bandits run around doing whatever they do."

"I still don't get how that's related to me and my lack of nonlethal weaponry. I'd rather just kill them."

"I mean, killing Yoma is nice and all, but if we start killing people, even bandits, people are gonna freak out."

Cole had a point and Alex couldn't help be slightly agree. Back in the NYZ, there was no reason to have a nonlethal ability. But this wasn't NYZ and there definately wasn't a monstrous infection going on that would try to consume all life, well, not including him. Still, Alex couldn't help but think how annoying it was going to be.

"Man, heroism is a bitch," the virus muttered.

"Oh calm down, I'll help you get something ready. Besides, I gotta work on something too."

Alex smirked at this, "Oh, you talking about how slow your ass was moving."

Cole was dismissive, but agreed nonetheless, "Yea, yea, I know. I'm mostly doing it cause those Yoma are freakin fast. I won't be able to help anyone if those freaks can out maneuver me."

Alex shrugged as he crossed his arms together, "So you do you propose we 'train,' Cole."

"I don't know. I usually just did weird stuff until I found that I could something different. I also had something called blast cores that powered me up. What'd you do?"

"I just ate stuff until I had enough genetic material to get something new."

"Fat-ass," Cole joked.

"Shut-up," Alex responded. "Anyways, from the looks of things, I think we won't be able to get new powers the way we usually do."

"Wha do ya mean?"

Alex mused for a bit before responding, "Well, for you, blast cores don't exist so that way is out of the picture. For me, I can't just eat some random person off the street for genetic material."

"What about those Yoma that you keep eating? They probably gotta have some stuff in there that you'd like."

"Actually, the Yoma DNA is useless," Cole looked at Alex in surprise before the virus continued. "Yea, I know. Apparently, Yoma DNA is stagnant. There is a limit to what it can do before it burns out and just doesn't do anything, not to mention, most of what Yoma do relies on Yoki and, if I try to use it, Yomas and Claymores can find me. This sort of crap's why I don't trust the organization."

Cole raised an eyebrow, "How does shitty DNA relate to an organization that runs on killing Yoma."

"Yoma DNA is stagnant and that's not normal."

"Well, last I checked, attacking someone with your fingers by extending them into their face usually isn't normal."

"No, no. That's not what I meant," Alex dismissed. "When something evolves over time, their DNA always has room for change and mutation. It's the law of the land in nature. To adapt or die. The thing is, Yoma can't do this."

"What?"

"Yea. Yoma can't mutate or evolve and that only points to two things." Alex raised his right hand and pulled two fingers out. "The first is that they're aliens from another planet that have lived for so long that their genetic structure's become unified and unadaptive."

"Do you really its aliens?"

"No, it's incredibly unlikely. So it has to be another option," Alex looked into the Conduit's eyes with absolute seriousness. "They were manufactured like bioweapons."

Cole went wide eyed at this, "Bioweapons?" The name Bertrand ran through the conduit's mind.

"Yea and the thing is Yoma don't have a sex drive."

"So they can't populate like normal animals"

"Exactly and how many years do you think this 'organization' has been around for."

"I dunno."

"Well, from what I can tell, they've been around for more than a hundred years."

"That's freakin insane, those things should have died by then. . . unless—"

"Yea, the organization is making those freaks themselves."

This startling new revelation shocked Cole to his core. "I guess we really can't trust those shifty assholes."

"Told you so," Alex said waving his hands. "But anyways back to the topic at hand."

"Y-yea," Cole paused for a moment before he spoke. "Do you think she knows?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think Clare knows?"

The virus shrugged, "I can't read minds Cole, but what I can tell you is that we gotta be more careful about revealing ourselves now."

Cole couldn't help but look back towards the town they had been in. Had Clare been grateful or was he just pulling his rope?

'_Screw it. Best not to think about it_'

Cole shook his head knocking away the strange feeling that came over him.

'_Besides it's not like I'm gonna see her again._'

* * *

Somewhere in the middle of Nowhere

Clare was sitting down resting from a long walk when she felt the sudden urge to sneeze.

'_Someone must be talking about me_' She mused, '_I wonder who it is?_'

* * *

Cole felt a sudden ticklish feeling in his nose as he felt the urge to sneeze come up

*Aachoo*

"Bless you," Alex said calmly not giving a look to the conduit.

"Thanks, but anyways back to developing our powers."

"Yea, I think what we need to do is start understanding our powers."

"Wha do ya mean?"

"Well," Alex replied, "From what I can tell, our normal concept of gaining power is what it sounds like, getting something new. What we haven't tried is perfecting what we got."

"Oh, I see. So we'd be refining our powers?"

"Sort of, for you its understanding your powers."

"What does that mean?"

"Let me explain," Alex said in a serious tone. "My powers revolve around genetic manipulations and reforming my body's cellular structure. I know what I can do to make myself better and do it actively. You on the other hand don't do that."

"This better not end up as some joke about me being dumber than you."

"That's not what I'm saying Cole. What I am saying is that, you've been relying on other devices to give you a broader control over your powers. What you haven't done is tried to understand your powers and try to do new things that way."

"Explain."

"Ok then, Cole," Alex gestured to a rock. "What do you see when you look at that rock?"

Cole raised an eyebrow, "I see a rock."

The virus rolled his eyes, "No you dumb-ass. What the hell do you really see?"

"Look I don't get what your goin on about with this crap. Just explain it to me."

Alex raised his arms up in frustration, "Fine. Cole do that radar pulse that thing you do."

Cole did so and, after a while, the conduit still stared at the virus in confusion.

"Now," the virus said patiently. "Do the same thing, but with your eyes."

Cole changed his expression from confusion to a wide eyed grin. "Oh, crap. So that's what you mean? Using my powers differently?"

"That and something else," Alex responded. "If you do manage to fully learn to control electromagnetism, then you basically have the ability to manipulate the atomic structure of every physical object in existence. That's why I told you to look at the rock. I didn't mean the rock, I mean the atomic structure that made it."

"Shit," Cole said expressing surprise, "Never thought of it that way."

"Yea," Alex said as he observed the conduits expression. "You wanted to get faster right?"

"Uh-huh, and?"

"Well, since you," Alex's right hand motioned over Cole's body. "are made of energy. You technically can make yourself . . . move at the speed of light."

"Like Kesslar? Sweet," Cole smiled but his expression changed quickly when he realized something. "Wait, Kesslar was an old man when he fought me. How long do you think it took for him to learn how to move like that then?"

Alex shrugged, "I don't know, but I think you'll have an easier time to learn it then him. You're pure energy in a physical form while Kesslar was just a physical form. You already got the first step down, you just have to make sure that your body doesn't explode after you use it."

Cole rolled his eyes, "Oh great," He said sarcastically. "I only have to make sure that I don't explode in to a billion pieces."

"I suggest you got at this slowly and get a feel for when you're moving around as energy."

"Ok then. While I do that, you get yourself a non-lethal weapon, got it?"

"Yea, I'll figure that out later."

So the two men walked ever so silently. Alex had finally been given some silence to which he appreciated, but soon Cole quickly broke it again.

"So are you sure you don't shit"

"FUCKING SHIT, JUST LET IT GO."

Alex was just about to punch the conduit when the two men saw the something in front of them.

"Hey is that the village?" The virus said as he looked on

True enough the two men saw, in the distance, a visage of the said village, but, when they looked closer, the faint shadow of smoke fluttered in the sky. "Shit, let's get our asses moving,"

* * *

**Sorry for the shorter chapter. I'm just using it to transition to the next part as well as show what I planned for them. So yea.**

**Thanks for reading please review, reviews help me write. Feel free to ask any questions.**

**Also, if anyone can suggest Alex's pairing and give me good reason for it, then I just might make it so.**

**Another note: I like what Laluzi did. If you guys would like, can you give me your favorite lines in this fic? It really helps me understand what you guys like and what I should keep.**

**Thanks for criticisms and all guys cya later.**


	7. The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 1

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

**Chapter 6**

**The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 1**

Also Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**24 Reviews. That's awesome.**

**Thanks for following changyon92, DanteTheDevilHunterAssassin, Distrxy, Kaldi97, LiquiDSoL, meow114, Shark Spartan.**

**Thanks for putting me in favorites Distrxy, drake202, hellscream, Kaldi97, LiquiDSoL, meow114, pyroinfurno, Shark Spartan, stsc-2**

**Keep up those reviews. They really help motivate me**

**Because of the Poll, I think I'm going to just do what I do. However, I am going to need a break, so I am not going to update after this until the 22****nd**** of September**

**This is really hard to keep going daily so yea, BREAK TIME.**

* * *

**24 Hours ago**

As the first beams of sunlight trickled into Rana's room, she knew today would be a somewhat different day.

When she had woken up, she got started on making breakfast. Steamed vegetables on the wood stove as Rana took out side of bread and tore it into smaller pieces. She had to admit, even though this wasn't the most mouthwatering meal, it still satisfied her taste buds.

While the meal simmered, she finally got her little ten year old brother out of bed with her father and mother following suit. Sitting all around the table, Rana's family first prayed to the twin goddesses, Clare and Teresa, and then ate the food that had been set.

"So when are you going to go to Rabona for your priesthood?" Rana asked her brother. Denra had been accepted into the Rabona church and had been waiting for instructions.

"I don't know," He replied. "Mom said to just wait for them to send actual guards for me."

"Hmmf," the older man remarked. "If you would just work in the field, then you could just walk to that Holy City of yours yourself. Get some muscles on your bones."

Rana sighed. Her father had always disliked Denra's goal of being a priest in a holy city. A working hand in the field was better than one that prayed in a monastery he said.

"Say Dad, how has Eli been doing?"

"The new farm hand? He's been working hard, but I think he'll be leaving soon. I've still been warning him though, about those rumors."

Eli was handsome brunette that Rana had taken a liking to. He wasn't big, but he wasn't small by any means. He kept a respectful distance to Rana, but had been sending messages to Rana himself. They were two love birds she thought.

As for the rumors, many people had been discussing about a notorious bandit group circling around some of the other villages. It was only a week ago that a village close by had been attacked. The people were all left alive but had now been pressured into giving food and shelter to the bandits, there were even whispers of forced sexual services.

Rana shuddered as she thought more into the rumors. For her, this was her life. Working around the house, listening to rumors, and hoping that none would come to pass over her and her family. This had been the reason why Denra wanted to be a priest. Instead of waiting day after day for an inevitable end, Denra would be in a monastery, safe and sound.

This was also the reason why their father had not completely objected to Denra's departure. Even though he preferred a working hand, he still wanted Denra to be safe. The world was cruel and any shield that could be taken would be done so immediately.

Soon the table was thoroughly clean and the four family members went on to do their usual duties. Rana had to do the dishes and get some meat for the dinner that day. As such, she quickly washed all the plates and bowls and made her way to the market.

Despite being earlier hours, the market was bustling with activity. Mothers talked to each other, children played, and other girls gossiped as she walked through the alleyway. Rana could hear some whispers about Eli and could feel the jealous stares, but she eventually tuned it out as she got the meat that she needed for the meal.

As she turned back to the farm, she saw the figure of a man walking up to her. It was Eli and, from the looks of things, he seemed to be on a break. She smiled as she saw the young man.

"Hello Eli, how are you."

Eli smiled, a small smile that always got her attention, "Oh nothing much, haha. I finally got to go on a break."

Rana smiled. She knew he like him but she could tell how clueless the boy was about her. She liked him back but Eli just couldn't see ANYTHING.

'_So frustrating,_' She thought. '_Girls have to do everything._'

"Eli"

The dark haired male turned to her, "Hmm?"

"When are you leaving?"

He frowned for a moment, "Umm, why?"

She stared at the ground and rubbed her foot, "I was just, you know, just . . . Why do you have to go?"

". . ." The boy was quiet and his silence made things uncomfortable. He started to scratch his head when he spoke. "I just . . . need to move around."

"You don't like it here?"

"No, it's not that. I like being around yo— I mean around here." Eli nervously blushed.

"I . . . see." Perhaps Rana was wrong about Eli's feelings.

A silence erupted between the two. They stood there for a bit until Eli spoke again.

"So, when's Denra going to, um, Rebona,"

"Soon," Rana replied, still saddened. "We're waiting for an escort to come."

"Is your family going with him."

"No, it's too expensive to live there. It is a holy city after all."

Eli looked uneasy, "So you guys are staying here?"

"Um, yea. Why?"

". . . Why don't you just come with me?"

"Whaa?"

"You know, just move around with me?"

She looked at him for a second before laughing. Eli face contorted into embarassment.

"You know, for a second I thought you didn't like me." Rana said blushing. Eli gave a similar blush while Rana kept talking. "But, I can't go with you."

He looked shocked, "W-Why not?"

She smiled, "As much as I like you Eli, I can't just abandon my family." She looked into his eyes before continuing. "I know my Dad is going to have too much on his mind if he finds out two of his kids left him for a monastery and a guy."

"Oh," Eli said. "I see."

"Why don't you stay here?"

"Huh,"

"You know we have plenty of work to go around and my Dad likes you around. Say you keep me in line."

"Well, you do try and do some of the manlier jobs around the house."

"Hey, we girls can do what you do as well as you guys can, if not better. Heck, why do you think only women are claymore."

Eli rubbed his head, "Ok I'm sorry."

Eventually, they got back and soon Eli and Rana got back to work. Eli tended the fields while Rana did some laundry with her mother. Nothing transpired for the rest of the day and dinner went off without a hitch as well. When dinner had finally been cleaned up, it was time for her to go to bed. She tucked Denra first into bed and thus followed suit saying 'Good Night' to her parents.

Thus sleep came upon her like a blissful summer dream. She dreamed of good times with Eli and questioned herself why in the world he would ever want to leave. Out of the blue, Rana woke to the sound of a creaking door and hurried footsteps. She turned to see her door slightly ajar and soon pulled herself out of bed to see what was going on.

When she came down the stairs, she saw the figure of Eli dressing up and walking out of the house. Following suit, she came out into the open with bare feet and spoke groggily to Eli.

"Eli? What are you doing?"

He turned, not expecting Rana's presence.

"Rana, I uh-I," He stuttered. "I have to go."

"Why?"

"I got something that I need to do."

She sighed, "Eli, I wanna ask you something." She said while she moved her bare feet over the grass. "Do you like me?"

Eli blushed, "Um, yea?"

"No not just like, I mean like-like me"

Eli only stuttered, "Uh-uh I."

Now Rana was right next to him and they could feel each other breath come towards them.

"Eli," She said blushing a hue of red akin to roses. "Do you love me?"

Eli quickly blurted out as if he had held it in forever, "YES, oh—oh I mean yes."

Rana wrapped her arms around the taller young adult. "Then, before you go, show me."

At that moment the two kissed a deep kiss of passion. Thoughts brushed through each other's minds as their love intensified. The duo moved quickly to an empty storage barn that Rana's father owned and soon their passion turned the cold night into a night of loving making.

* * *

Eventually, the dawn came up once again as Rana struggled to wake up. Eli was strewn over her and their clothes were scattered all over the room. Rana quickly blushed a deep red as she picked up and wore her clothes, the memories still intensely imprinted in her head.

She quickly moved herself towards the house, still limping from the last night's . . . action. However, she noticed something was wrong when she saw her family all lined up in front of her house on their knees no less.

There were various men on horses, who at first she thought was the guard escorting Denra, but she soon saw the lack of armor and flags and alarms went off in her head.

"HEY," She screamed. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

The men on horses looked at each other and laughed. One man, however, was not amused.

"Bring that little bitch over here." On cue, three men grabbed her from behind and hit her.

She was dazed but that didn't stop her from realize what was going on. The bandits were taking over the town. Some distance away, she could hear screaming and the various visages of smoke were rolling out into the sky. When she was brought to the man, the man grabbed her face with his hand.

"Hello, you little bitch. The hell are you doing now, eh." He said while licking his lips.

His breath stank of death and she spit into his face. Rana felt red hot pain shoot through her face as she got slapped over the cheek and fell to the ground. Suddenly, a familiar voice came from out of the blue.

"DOM, Let her GO," Eli snarled.

Dom looked at him as he looked back at Rana, "Now now, Eli. Why didn't you tell me you had a girl toy to play with."

Rana looked at Eli betrayed. "You were with them," she said in disbelief.

Eli's nervous face looked down, "I was going to try to leave them last night and then you stopped me."

Rana grew angry "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ANYTHING!"

"I didn't know what to say or what you'd think about me"

Soon the two were interrupted by Dom, "Alright this is fun and all but we don't have time to kill." Dom pulled out a sword to end Rana's life. Dom, however, was quickly tackled by Eli, who proceeded to punch Dom. . . A lot.

"DON'T TOUCH HER YOU ASS."

"GET THIS FUCKER OFF A' ME"

Three men grabbed him and proceeded to beat him down. Rana watched in horror as blood soon came coughing out of Eli's mouth.

Dom was pissed.

"Move him there, MOVE HIM NOW" Dom screamed.

The same three moved him away from the rest of the group and the men moved back and away from Dom. Dom stepped forward and kicked Eli in the stomach.

"I don't got time so I'm just gonna kill you," Dom said as he lifted his sword.

The blade came swooshing down and Rana screamed for anyone. Anyone that could help, anything that could do something to save Eli. The sword moved down and down and down and down.

But the thing is . . . the sword never touched Eli.

When Eli looked up, he almost watched in slow motion as a blur of light smashed into Dom's face obliterating it and sending the body flying.

The light died down and revieled a man of unknown origin. The man smiled as he looked back.

"Hey kid, whoa."

The man cringed as he saw Eli. "You ok?"

Eli nodded up and down. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Good, then its time," The man said as a dark hooded figure appeared right next to him.

"That was the stupidest idea ever Cole,"

"Quiet Alex, we got bitches to kick."

* * *

**WOOT HEROIC ENTRANCE FTW**

**This is the start of a new arc: Rabona Arc**

**Sorry for this detour instead of going straight to Rabona, I really like building things up.**

**Obviously I'll be closely following the manga, but I'm going to . . . add some stuff**

***Insert evil laugh here***

**Why am I not describing the lemons? Because this is a teen **

**Also, do you guys like this chapter? I know this is a change of pace so, if you can, can you tell me if this chapter is any good? If this kind of thing is no good PLEASE TELL ME.**

**Thanks for reading please review, reviews help me write. Feel free to ask any questions.**

**Also, if anyone can suggest Alex's pairing and give me good reason for it, then I just might make it so.**

**Another note: I like what Laluzi did. If you guys would like, can you give me your favorite lines in this fic? It really helps me understand what you guys like and what I should keep.**

**Alright**


	8. The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 2

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

**Chapter 7**

**The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 2**

Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**Alright guys here you go**

**BTW THANKS FOR THE REVIEW**

**Current Count: 36**

**PLEASE REVIEW**

* * *

Alex looked at Cole as everyone else turned their gaze towards the two. To say that the bandits were shocked was an understatement, they were horrified. The man that had been punched, Dom, had been sent flying and had crashed into the barn. The broken splinters of wood were coated with a thin layer of blood.

"Bitches to kick?" Alex asked when he heard Cole speak. "What drug induced state made you think that would be appropriate?"

"Hey, we got a kid over here," Cole said as he pointed to the shivering yet amazed child. "The concept of death is harsh especially for a kid."

Alex looked at Cole questioningly shaking his head, "That still doesn't explain why you tried to use the word 'bitches.' The better term would be asses."

"And guess which of us got the smart-ass reward, oh that's right. You."

"At least I'm not a dumbass that asks people if they can take a shit or not."

"HEY, that was a valid question." He said serious. "Besides, I'm curious intellectual."

"Curious intellectual my ass! You're the guy that thinks the word 'penal code' is funny."

"Heh, heh. Penal code."

"My point exactly"

At this point, the bandits had shaken themselves out of their stupor and started to look at one another. When they looked at their leader, Dom had started to get out of the pile of wood that had previously been a barn. The various cuts on his body and face showed the red blood of the bandit leader. His face was swollen and his nose had been mangled badly. It was then the bandit leader had decided to speak.

"Dah-Fuwq ah you gays dowin g-at thes ases."

Suddenly, Cole threw a bolt of electrical energy at Dom, but this was no ordinary bolt, no, it was an electric tether. To his horror, Dom felt the pull from the tether bring him towards Cole. The tether violently jerked him off his feet and, as he flew towards the conduit, Dom could see Cole rearing back for a kick. A second later, there was only pain.

"Oh, crap!"

"Damn!"

"Eww!"

"Owwww,"

Dom had landed right in front of Cole . . . only to get kicked in the groin and get sent flying again. The various responses from the group of bandits, even from Alex, Cole, and the family that was still on their knees, had just annunciated the pain. Dom's face could not be read, but it was most likely would have been one of pain and suffering.

"I guess I'll take that back, bitches to kick does work now."

"Thank you, Alex."

The other bandits immediately backed off and started running towards the burning village grabbing their leader in the process. The family was still staring at the two men that had saved them. Denra was amazed by the light that had come from Cole's hand. There were only so many things that he could think of that could explain such a phenomenon, but one stuck out in particular.

"Kid, you ok?"

Denra promptly shook his head in disbelief and focused back on Cole.

"Um, yes."

Cole smiled and patted the child on the back.

"Alright then, let me just check up on that guy over there."

Once Cole started moving towards Eli, Eli started to get a bit nervous, but quickly calmed down once Cole spoke.

"Man, you got the shit kicked outta you."

Eli smiled a bit but frowned when he felt the pain on his face. Cole observed the teen and caught Eli's reaction to his pain.

"You alright?"

"Not really, my face kinda hurts"

Cole looked over Eli. With a radar pulse, Cole saw Eli's broken rib and arm.

"Yowch, I think your face is the last thing you should worry about . . . hold on, let me try something" Cole said as he cracked his knuckles. Cole's hands started to glow and crackle with energy shocking Eli and making him look at the Conduit questioningly.

"What are . . ."

"Don't worry, this might hurt a bit, but you'll feel better."

Cole moved his hands over Eli scaring him. Eli tried to dodge, but his broken rib and arm didn't help with his case. As Cole put his hand on Eli, Eli felt himself quickly get racked with the energy. His nerves felt as though they started to burn but, another second later, Eli felt the soothing effects of the energy. The bones, while not fully mended, started to heal and the bruises dissipated. Alex was surprised.

"Whoa, you didn't tell me you could do that."

Cole just smirked, "Yea, I got plenty of tricks up my sleeve."

Cole turned his head towards the village and his expression darkened. The fire from the village was starting to get bigger.

"Cole, I'll hunt them down, you help the village." Alex spoke as he recognized Cole's look.

"Wait, Alex,"

"Hey, I know what you're gonna say, but this isn't your Empire city or New Marais. There are no law enforcement no military and no nation, only the strong survive and if you think they'll back off if we scare them once. You're wrong."

Cole still stared at him, ". . . Is this really necessary?"

"Heroism is good, but if these bastards are going to stoop to a low like this," Alex breathed in and cracked his neck. "They deserve to die."

Cole stayed quiet for a bit, but eventually agreed, "Fine"

At that, the two men ran off leaving behind a stunned family and work hand.

* * *

Cole could see various bodies strewn out on the streets of this village. Many villagers had died in the initial assault and the various burning buildings were done to keep the village in line. Cole was pretty pissed at this point. Back in Empire city and in New Marais, he hated anyone that tried to rule their respective cities. With the power the various factions had, they forced people under their rules and had the population listen to their whims. Their power had corrupted them.

These bandits were the same. Instead of helping a village, they took a village's resources and ravaged their people to force submission onto them. They too had let their power corrupt them.

Still, as much as he would have liked to have destroyed the bandits himself, he had bigger issues. First off he had to stop the various buildings from burning down and then he would have to tend to the various wounded individuals that hadn't died from the attacks.

To solve his first problem, Cole gathered an old familiar energy within him. Before, in order for him to have utilized the ionic attacks, he had to gather ionic charges from fallen enemies. Now that the RFI had fused with him, Cole could feel the inner surge of ionic charges seeping into him as he charged up for an ionic blast.

Various villagers watched as the sky turned darker and darker and the man surged with purple ionic energy. Fear grew within them not understanding that this man was trying to save them.

'_Well then, no time like the present._'

As he let started to release the energy he contained, dark clouds flew over the village and the surrounding area. The clouds crackled with energy and volatile electricity waiting for a chance to strike. As Cole fully released his energy, a bolt of lightning landed on top of him as the clouds burst with rain. For a constant minute the thunder energized him as the surrounding area was pelted with the sweet bliss of rain.

Villagers watched as this man summoned the clouds from the high heavens to awaken rain. Fires blew out and blood was washed until the rain finally stopped. Cole had shocked himself for a consecutive five minutes. He knew that whenever he used his ionic lightning, that the skies grew darker and volatile but he had never tried to summon the rain before. To keep the lightning from hurting anyone, he put all his focus toward himself to prevent collateral damage and, in turn, various parts of himself started to feel a bit unstable.

'_Damn that hurt like a bitch_'

Soon he started to feel the lack of sleep start to take a toll on him. His eyes were getting heavier and his body was getting slightly sluggish. The powerful electricity, however, soon surged in him reminding him of his other duties.

'_No rest for the weary._'

He sent out a weakened pulse and started looking for the villagers. One by one, he approached them but many backed off for fear that they would be attacked. Eventually he came up to one child who had been severely injured from the attack. The child had several slash marks on his chest, many of them near fatal as well as bleeding profusely. The parents begged him to stay away but his determined face showed his intentions.

"I'm not lettin' anyone die on my watch."

The parents looked at each other and towards Cole, Cole's eyes growing softer when tears started to form in their eyes. He moved passed them and quickly brought his hands up. The shimmering light stunned the two parents as well as other individuals that watched the Conduit do his work. When the hands touched the boy, the child jerked his chest up as the electricity flowed through him, but soon he got up. The lacerations started to miraculously heal up and soon the wounds stopped bleeding. All that was left was the scar of the cuts, but that was enough to send the entire village into a panic.

Soon Cole was being brought to him every wounded individual and soon the staggering numbers daunted him. While Cole could use a wide spread pulse heal, he could tell that the wounds on the many villagers would require special attention. Most large pulse heals he did were in groups of three or four and they mostly dealt with bruises or small bullet wounds. These villagers, on the other hand, had large, near fatal slashes that required far more focus and potency and, because this world lacked medicine, he was going to have to take even more time to make sure that they would stay healthy rather than succumb to disease

'_Oh boy, this is going to be a long day_'

* * *

**Some distance away from Cole**

The bandits had finally regrouped back at their hideout in the caves. Many bandits, or more specifically the ones had been with Dom, were thoroughly shaken by the sudden appearance of Cole. His first attack screwed over Dom's face making it seem as if Dom was mangled by a rock. The second attack, however, was what had caught their attention.

"B-Boss, what do we do?"

Dom hadn't realized he was being talked to and was muttering to himself.

"Boss?"

"Hey, leave the man be. He's probably in his own little world by now," said another goon.

"Man, what the hell happened to hit the boss that hard?"

"I don't know." The first goon spoke, "There was this guy that came outta nowhere and punched him in the face and then he pulled the boss in with this . . . thing."

"Thing?"

"Yea, it was like earlier what happened over the village."

"That light? Oh shit oh shit. What the hell did you piss off?"

"I don't know. Ask the boss."

However, before they turned their head towards Dom, screams were heard outside. Everyone, even the dazed boss, in the cave turned to the opening to see a bloodied bandit.

"W-we have to r-r-run" he screamed,

"W-wh-what the happened?"

"Get everyone outta here, he's comin-AGHH"

The bandits in the cave soon saw the survivor getting dragged by a tendril. They could only guess one thing, Yoma. The men scrambled to their feet and gathered their things as they moved through the tunnals.

"Seal the entrance, nothing 'll get through there."

About ten men broke off from the main group and started to push a large rock that sat right next to the entrance. With it sealed, the bandits would not have to fear anything following behind them.

"W-wait!"

A voice came from the small opening, a bloodied bandit walked into the cave with the others and the ten at the rock quickly closed the entrance.

"How the hell did you get away?"

"I-I Oh my GOD." The figure was trembling.

"What happened?"

The bloodied man looked up into their eyes, "it was terrible horrible." He gulped before he continued, "My group went back to get the supplies from our previous camp when we started hearing sounds."

"Yoma?"

"T-t-that's what we thought, but then . . . he came."

"Who? The guy that punched the boss?"

"No, h-he was the guy that talked to him."

"Wait, the hooded guy,"

"Yea, we thought he had a death wish but then, h-h-he tore everyone apart!"

"What do ya mean,"

"I mean I GOT CLAWS AND KILLED THEM ALL! THEN STARTED TO PLAY AROUND WITH US LIKE TOYS. Only a couple of the guys even got to the horses. But then he started to hunt us down one by one we all died every single one of us . . . "

The bandits grew silent, "wait . . . how did you get away?"

The bloodied man was quiet ". . ."

"How did you get away?" one of the guys said louder

A smirk slowly coiled over his face

"Oh g-god! RUUUUN."

Watched in horror as the bloodied man started to get covered in tendrils and flesh and transformed into Alex Mercer. His plan was a success and now the men were trapped like rats with only one way to run.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

The bandits ran and ran as fast as they could. They could sense the futility but did so anyways. One by one Mercer hunted them down and, with each scream, tears formed over all the bandits' faces. The caves that had originally been their safe haven now only served to aid the screams to travel faster and funnel them. Alex's laughs burned into their minds as the bandits' felt their bodies torn to shreds and their guts spilled. No bandit would ever survive to tell the tale of the red winged monster.

* * *

"D-damn," Cole muttered as he finished healing his last patient. "How many people did I heal?"

"I think you healed about half the village, Mister." Denra was next to Cole when Denra responded to the conduit. As a would-be priest, he had some minor skills in treating wounds, to Cole's surprise, and thus he had attempted to help Cole with those with minor injuries.

Cole spit towards the side as he looked over the now healing villagers, "and how many would that be, kid?"

"I think that's about forty people."

"Oh, ok. That's wonder-fu-l." Cole whispered as he fell over tired.

Denra flipped when he saw this, "M-m-mister!? Are you ok?"

Denra shook the man violently hoping to get a response when another voice came out of the shadows.

"Hey, calm down Denra. He's probably tired from healing the others."

Denra looked towards the voice and saw Eli still barely holding himself.

"ELI! Are you ok?"

"Yea, whatever he's done, it's helped a lot. If it wasn't for him, I'd barely be crawling let alone walking."

Denra could only help but stare at the conduit, now fast asleep, "What . . . is he?"

Eli shrugged, "I don't know and, last I checked, you're the priest."

Denra looked at Eli shocked, "Wait, what are you saying? Do you really think that their. . ."

"No, no. I was only kidding. Priests just always seem to have explanations for everything."

"Oh," Denra said as he blushed, "I see. I'm sorry."

"It's nothing, Denra." Eli smiled gently.

"Um, Eli" Denra said as he remembered something.

"Yea?"

"How's Rana?"

Eli started to rub the back of his head, "Uh, I haven't seen her."

"REALLY?" The shout made Eli jump and he quickly turned to see Rana looking straight at him.

"Oh . . . hi Rana."

"Eli, we need to talk."

Eli shuddered as he heard the words of death. "Uh-huh. . ."

"Eli, why didn't you tell me about this at all?"

He stood there nerviously trying to figure out the best words to say. None of the choices that he had could get him out at all, so there was only one choice to go with. The truth.

"I didn't want you to know because . . . I was afraid." Eli nervously started off, "The reason I wanted you to come with me was cause I was going to leave those guys forever. If I told you . I . . thought you would hate me."

Rana turned away with a still hardened face. "You know I hate you right now, right Eli."

Eli looked towards the ground and rubbed it with his foot, "Um . . . yes?"

"Do you love me?"

Eli stood straight up, "YES of course."

"Then," Rana said turning around and walking up to him. Eli looked into Rana's beautiful blue eyes as she looked into his. She got closer and closer to him almost kissing him until . . . "Don't be stupid next time."

She put her finger on his lips, pushing him back in the process. The farm hand sweated a bit in a fit of nervousness as he rubbed the back of his head smiling. "Sorry, Rana."

"Don't worry. Just be sure to explain to Dad that you're marrying me."

"Ok–WAIT WHAT?!"

"Well you did say you love me," Rana said snickering. "Oh, and take responsibility."

Rana's father heard the last part of the conversation and started walking up to the three. "So, Eli. Is it true."

Eli looked at old man horrified, "Oh- wait please I can explain!"

"You had better! I'm not in the mood for waiting!"

Rana only shook her head, "Father please calm down."

"What! Why should I? First I had to deal with your brother leaving, now I have to deal with your marriage. This is going to be a disaster."

Denra muttered silently, "If only I was in Rabona now."

* * *

Cole woke up to the sound of celebratory happiness and screams of joy. He could feel himself on a lavish and comfortable bed that was fit for kings. As he got up, Cole could see various men and women looked towards him with the gratefulness and awe.

"How's your fan club, Cole." Alex remarked with a smirk on his face.

Cole was a bit speechless, "Uhh, hi?"

An older man walked towards the bed carrying a large bag of money. "Thank you for saving our village. Please take this as a sign of our thanks."

Cole looked at the bag and looked at the man. A frown came across the conduit's face. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, no thanks?"

The entire group gasped as they heard him. Only the chief dared to speak, "but. . . is this not sufficient for your grace?"

Cole shrugged a bit, "Let's just say I work for free."

The village breathed a sigh of relief as the elder put the money away, "Oh thank you. We thought you were part of another group that would have taken our money."

Cole and Alex stared at the villagers and then towards each other. A snicker came over them as they started to laugh. Cole finished laughing first and spoke with a smile on his face.

"Oh man that's funny. I'm just gonna guess that you don't really get much in kindness around here."

"No, we are quite nervous with any strangers. Young Eli over here was almost denounced as a Yoma before we accepted him."

Cole looked at the kid that he had saved before, "Oh hey it's you! Your bruises ok kid?"

"Yes and, thanks to you, I think my leg is healing up as well."

"Alright then, that's good." Cole turned to the village chief. "So how's everyone else."

"Fantastic, it's was like we were never attacked . . . well except for the buildings."

"Yea, sorry for not coming sooner,"

"Oh please your grace, its fine."

Cole cocked an eyebrow at this, "Your grace?"

"Yes, many of the others believe you as a saint sent by their respective God. Your friend's winged pattern on his back only solidified our beliefs."

"Well, as long as you don't pronounce us as demons, I'm just peachy."

The villagers looked at Cole confused as the word "peachy" was an unfamiliar term with them. However, before they could speak, Alex retorted back at the conduit.

"Cole please, it's denounce not pronounce."

Cole could only look at the virus with frustration, "Please shut up"

"What are you gonna do, heal me with your magical angel powers" Alex remarked while smiling and twiddling his fingers at the conduit.

"I'll smack you upside the head that's what"

"You wanna try me dumbass?"

"Yea, let's go smart-ass"

And thus Chaos insued

* * *

**Thanks for reading please review, reviews help me write. Feel free to ask any questions.**

**Thanks for suggesting Alex's pairings. I sort of got it down to a couple claymores. When I feel the time is right, I'll set up a poll for this. I will send out a poll alert.**

**So ok, please do the usual criticizing thing. Say what you guys like and what you don't like blah blah blah.**

**Anyways cya**

**BTW: Next Post Date is going to be the 25th**


	9. The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 3

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

**Chapter 8**

**The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 3**

Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**Alright guys here you go**

**BTW THANKS FOR THE REVIEW**

**Current Count: OMG I GOT LIKE 50 REVIEWS**

**View Count: 2500 AHHH YEAAAAA**

**PLEASE REVIEW**

**BTW As you will read here, Raki will not ever come into this fic. Cole and Alex sort of take his place as the male characters.**

* * *

A shining sun pierced through the clouds on the fine morning over Rabona. As the bells rang, the many citizens of the holy city began their day. Streets soon moved with life as the men and women of the city discussed the various gossip and hubbub of the day. On one street, a hooded figure walked towards a neatly marked inn.

The older gentleman, that was tending the inn, had been slightly dozed off. The early morning was just making his eyes heavy, but that all changed when the hooded figure came slowly walking in. As the hooded figure was a beautiful blond woman of fair age. While the hood did cover her eyes a bit, he soon saw her stunningly pretty face along with her gorgeous brown eyes.

"Welcome," the old man said as he stood up. "We're the cheapest inn around. Do you need a room ma'am."

A smile formed over the lady's face, "Thank you, yes I require a room."

As the lady shifted, the old man caught himself staring at a strange pack on the lady's back. "I see, uh. Might I ask what is in that pack?"

"Ah yes," the blond woman said as she placed the tall pack with a 'thunk'. "You see, I earn a living selling old antiques that my late father left me."

"Antiques?," the old man questioned as he watched the woman unwrap her pack. The object inside revealed to be a statue of a woman that seemed to pray.

"Yes, my father devoted his life to them, this is the last piece in his collection." She paused a bit as the old man observed the well-crafted statue before she continued. "I've been told this is from the Runoa period. It's a statue of a goddess by Auguste."

"Hmm," the old man pondered. "That's really something. How much do you want for it?"

"The price is ten million beras."

"T-Ten million," the old man exclaimed as he almost fell out of his chair. "Sorry miss . . . but it just don't look like it's worth ten million. I think your father was having you on."

The young woman still kept her calm and happy face as she spoke, "Yes I think so too, but since we travel around selling our father's memories we decided to try and sell them at the price our father set."

The innkeeper could only shrug, "Then I recon I should keep my trap shut. Good luck and here's your room key."

The lady took the key and walked off passing an armored guardsman.

The guardsman took a glance as she passed by noting the delicate features of her face.

"Who's she? What a beauty" the armored man said to the innkeeper. Both men still stared at her as she left for her room.

"She's a guest. Said she's traveling around selling antiques"

"Antiques? That's unusual these days."

"Yes . . . Say have you heard about the rumors around the gag order?"

"Yea, some of the other guardsmen have been saying that a Yoma's here in the city."

* * *

As the lady entered her room, she could not help but release a huge sigh. She took off her overcoat and her façade revealing her true persona. Claire walked to the nearest seat and sat there, pondering on the previous events that led her to Rabona.

**_FLASHBACK_**

_"Rabona? The place they call the holy city?"_

_It had been three days after the incident with the two men. As she promised, Claire did not speak of the two men or of the other Yoma, but somehow the organization had gotten wind of her . . . secrets._

_"The request came from there," Rubel spoke. Rubel was Claire's handler and he was the one who basically dealt with the village payments for her as well as gave Claire her assignments. He was a tall and thin strange man who wore all black, like most handlers did, as well as dark glasses and a hat._

_The thin man continued to speak, "They want you to hunt down a yoma that's appeared in town."_

_"But . . . Rabona is-"_

_"Yes," Rubel interrupted. "Anything unnatural . . . objects, tools, people . . . is forbidden in the Holy city of Rabona. Of course that includes Claymores."_

_Claire paused before she responded to the creepy man, "If that's so, then I can't get in."_

_"Not necessarily," Rubel said as he smiled slyly. "This is a matter of special urgency. We've been asked to enter the city without revealing ourselves and dispatch the monster quickly and quietly. That's the specific request."_

_"So it's a covert operation"_

_"Precisely," Rubel threw a small sack to Claire. She caught it easily and opened it revealing small pills. "Those are Yoki suppression pills that change your eyes back to their natural color."_

_"How will I be able to find Yoma if I can't find Yoki?"_

_"Once you slip into town, you'll have to search for it the old-fashioned way."_

_She gripped the pills tightly. No yoki also meant slower regeneration and potential weakness to Yoma attacks. This would be a hard fight ahead of her._

_Eventually, she took the pack and started to walk off, but Rubel stopped her._

_"So Claire . . . who did you meet back at the previous village."_

_Claire froze for a second before she turned her head, her face still as calm as ever. "I don't recall meeting anyone suspicious."_

_Rubel smiled a coy little smile before continuing, "Oh, don't worry about your two 'angel' friends. The organization is quite interested in them actually. The rumors surrounding their . . . abilities have caught our eye."_

_Claire just looked at black clothed man with emotionless eyes and responded in the same way, "As I said before, I have not met them or found out anything about them further than what the rumors state."_

_He smirked, "I see, well then just for future reference, if you do just happen to meet them again, just tell them that we're willing to be of help to them."_

_Claire just stared and eventually turned away from the man._

**_FLASHBACK END_**

Claire was still spooked by the fact that Rubel had found out about Cole Macgrath and . . . the strange hooded person (she had forgotten the man's name). After her meeting with Rubel, rumors had been flying around about how the two had somehow saved a village from a bandit attack. Rumors of summoning rain and lightning, talks of people being miraculously healed of injuries, and of course whispers of the mysteriously hooded stranger.

When Claire had observed the two, she had only seen Cole send out the strange light that grabbed the Yoma and watched as he used it to bind it to the ground. The other figure used some strange whip that seemed to do the same as Cole's light. Now with these new rumors flying around, Claire could only guess what real powers the two men actually had.

'_Well, best not to dwell on strangers_'

Claire removed herself and walked out of the inn, giving a slight nod to the innkeeper and the guard as she walked past. The two nodded to her as she left through the door.

She eyed several streets until she could see her objective, Rabona's large cathedral. Like all holy structures built for worship, the cathedral was built in the center of the town. The massive towers that poked up were the tallest parts of the city even towering over some of the walls that protected the city. When she moved inside, she felt the air grow cooler. The darkened walls of the inner sanctum were carved out and intricately made into beautiful works of art that sat within the walls.

As she moved further in, she could see various people praying to their Gods or God and doing whatever religion they pleased. The concept of religion had never been appealing to her, the irony being that she was named after one of the twin goddess. Now the other twin goddess' name . . . gave less appealing memories.

'_Teresa_'

The claymore that had changed her life forever. The woman that she considered beyond what a daughter considered a mother was gone, but something else was caught in the web of her mind.

Cole Macgrath was certainly a strange man. The powers, while impressive, weren't what caught Claire's attention, no, rather it was the man's attitude that given herself a feeling that she thought she would never feel. The feeling of being human.

Most humans cowered away from Claymores, claiming that Claymores were monsters themselves. Frankly, the constant hatred was tiring for Claire and the constant reminder of her "evil" only wedged something inside her.

But Cole Macgrath was not like most humans. He had looked straight at her face and spoke to her like she was human again. When Cole had asked for her name, it only cemented her fascination with Cole's strange attitude. But why did she care, heck why should she have cared.

'_I better get a grip on myself_,' Claire thought. '_I mean it's not like I'll be seeing him any time soon_'

Suddenly a loud sneeze blew out from somewhere in front of her, making her jump. The sneezing man was starting to apologize to another individual in front of her. However, something was dawning on her as looked at the two men. The height, the clothes, the posture, and then she saw the faces.

'_No_,' Claire thought, '_No, how the hell is this possible._'

Right in front of her were the two very familiar figures of Alex Mercer and Cole Macgrath.

"*sniff* Man I swear someone is seriously talking about me too much." Cole spoke out with a sniffle.

"Cole, shut up. This is a religious sanctuary, we could get our asses kicked out," Alex hissed.

Claire watched the two men go up to the guard and get halted by said guard.

"The baptism chambers are beyond here. Please state your business here."

The two men humorously stared at the guard and then stared towards each other. They both shrugged and Cole quickly pushed a young child forward.

"This kid was supposed to be accepted for your priesthood or something. We just came to get this kid safely here."

The guard looked at the child and smiled, "Denra is has been a while since I've seen you."

"Hello, Aron. How have the priest been?" Denra said as he gave his own grin

"The priests are doing well, but I don't think that it is the best time for you to be here right now."

Cole quirked an eyebrow, "What do you mean problems?"

"It is nothing for you to be concerned with citizen,"

Cole grew a bit more annoyed, but Alex cut the hot headed conduit out before he could speak, "Cool it Cole. Sorry for the disturbance, us two will be on our way. Good luck Denra."

"Thank you Alex. Thank you Cole."

The two men waved at the small child as they headed towards the entrance. Claire, however, intercepted them.

"Do not turn around or give any look of surprise,"

Cole immediately turned around and saw Claire's face. Claire's right eye twitched a bit as she stared straight into Cole. "I just said to NOT turn around."

"Ah, crap," Cole said while scratching his head, "Sorry."

"Hey can I turn around since he's already seen you?" Alex mentioned.

"No no I'll just turn away," Cole responded

"Wait, just turn, you two are just complicating things."

At that moment, Alex turned to face Claire only for Cole to turn away from her.

"Wait," the hooded virus said. "Were we supposed to face you or face away from you?"

"Are you looking at her?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, she said not to look at her."

"You've already seen her face, Cole. There's no point"

Claire smacked her palm over her face in frustration as she saw this, "All right both of you just face me."

Cole turned to face Claire again as the virus leaned against a stone wall. Claire whispered quietly as she talked to them, "If you want to know what is going on then come to the inn on the far east side of town. I will be there after I have made some arrangements."

With that, Claire left the two stunned men as they tried to realize what had just happened.

"Well," Cole shrugged as he stretched his arms. "We did need a place to sleep."

Alex just looked at the conduit, "you do know that that woman was a claymore, right?"

Cole acted like he didn't hear the comment, "Well, like I said, let's just give these ladies a chance to explain themselves. Besides, she in it for the same thing reason we are."

"And what is that reason?" Alex said as he crossed his arms

The conduit smirked, "To kill the crap outta Yoma that's what."

* * *

**Thanks for reading please review, reviews help me write. Feel free to ask any questions.**

**Alex Pairing poll is UP!**

**Please check out the claymore wikia for info on the Claymores that you do not know of and check my profile for the poll. The Poll will have the reason why Alex chooses her and the Poll will be ****_BLIND_****. No biased choices from you guys.**

**If you want different choices please send me a PM or write a review explaining why that character should be with Alex.**

**Also, I will not reveal the pairing for Alex until the pairing is shown in the story.**

**And about Alex potentially being a bad guy . . . Maybe depending on the pairing**

**So ok, please do the usual criticizing thing. Say what you guys like and what you don't like blah blah blah.**

**. . .**


	10. The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 4

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

**Chapter 9**

**The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 4**

Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**Alright guys here you go**

**BTW THANKS FOR THE REVIEW**

**Current Count: 64 REVIEWS Keep em' coming**

**View Count: 3700!**

**Whoa barely got this in at 9/29**

**Next Update will be on 10/4**

**PLEASE REVIEW**

* * *

"I'm sorry," said the old innkeeper. "I don't see you two as . . . friends with such a fair lady."

Cole was starting to get annoyed. As the two were instructed, Cole and Alex had both gotten to the inn at the east side of town. They had just gotten in and were waiting around when they were approached by the inn keeper as to why they were there. When Cole had explained what had happened, the old man wasn't reluctant to trust them. From the old inn keeper's perspective, both Cole and Alex looked more like gruff men who would take advantage of his latest tenant rather than friendly companions.

"Well we're not really friends with her. We're actually more like . . . business partners."

"Really now," the man said while staring skeptically. "What does she sell then?"

"Uhhhhhh . . . business stuff?"

The old man just shook his head. "Please leave, I would prefer you not harassing my guests."

"But . . ."

"Please don't make me call the guards and, yes, I do know how to get you kicked out of the city."

Cole grumbled a bit as he started to turn around. Alex, on the other hand, was still leaning on the wall holding back a laugh from Cole's complete failure.

"Well, I guess we won't be meeting her," Alex quipped as the two walked to the door.

"You know you could have at least tried to help."

"Mmm . . . nah. Besides we don't need her help."

"Really now," said a voice that made the two men jump. As both Cole and Alex faced towards the door to see . . .

"Wait, Claire?" Cole said in surprise.

Her face still showed the same emotionless Claymore face from before. Her clothes, however, were different in that they seemed much more modest. Claire's fierce warrior visage had now transformed into a beautiful woman dressed in a long cloak with a reared back hood.

"Wait," Alex said with his hands up. "You were that lady? The one we met at the church?"

"Yes, I was. I was actually surprised that you did not notice me"

Cole shrugged, "Well you did have your hood down and all I could really see were your eyes. By the way, how did you change your eye color?"

"It's complicated," Claire responded shaking her head. "Besides, I need to make sure that you are not removed from the city."

"Why? So your Organization bosses can get us themselves?" Alex snarled, glaring at the woman.

"Easy Alex," Cole said as he raised his arm in front of the virus. "We don't need any trouble"

Claire sighed, "No," Claire looked at Alex for emphasis. "I am not here to hunt you down or to harm you."

Alex calmed down slightly but still looked at her with suspicion, "So, why are you here then?"

"That is what I will get to, but first let us get some privacy." With that, Claire immediately moved herself to the old innkeeper. Cole eyed her and saw her expression change from the face of a hardened warrior that he had seen before into a façade of a fragile and fair maiden.

"Ah, you're back," The old man gasped, "Oh . . . and those men—"

She smiled and Cole could almost see a glow come from her, "Yes, they are old friends of mine. In fact, they purchased some antiques from me some time ago to help me up on my feet."

"I see," the old man said scanning the two. "Well, if you say so then I guess I will be preparing dinner for three then."

"Yes, sorry for the extra work."

"No, no don't worry ma'am. I should be the one to say sorry. I almost got them kicked out of the city."

"Oh, no worries. I can understand how you could have mistaken," Claire looked at the two somewhat intimidating men and nodded, "I think we will head into the room"

"Ah, will you need an extra room for them?"

"Yes, that would be appreciated,"

The innkeeper leapt up from his seat with a key in hand. "Sorry for the misunderstanding earlier," he said shaking his head.

"Uh, yea. Um it's ok," Cole stuttered scratching his head. "Here's the payment and all."

"That won't be necessary," Claire said as she took out money.

Cole folded his arms as he looked at Claire, "Wait, what?"

"I will be paying for your rooming fees," She responded

"Ah, yea. Ha ha, no."

"What?" Claire said in an authentic surprised tone

"What?" The innkeeper exclaimed in wonder

"What?" Alex spat out in shock.

Cole turned to Alex, "How much do we got?"

"30 Bera"

"How much is a two bed room?"

"5?" the inn keeper responded.

"Then, we'll pay."

"What? Why?" Alex questioned.

"Cause we can."

"I've already said that I would pay for your rooms though." Claire explained.

"No, no. It's ok," Cole assured. "As a man, I got an obligation to at least pay for my own room . . . and yours too."

"Bu—"

Cole immediately took ten Bera and placed it on the innkeeper's desk, "Here's the money. Let's head up then shall we."

"She has already paid for her room sir."

Cole stared at the innkeeper and sighed, taking five Bera from the table in the process, "Fine," Cole remarked as he turned to Claire and handed her the money. "Here, for the room."

"Um, Cole. I don't particularly need the money though,"

"Don't bother," Alex said as he waved his hand in front of his face, "Cole's too much of a dumbass to understand logic."

"Shut up, Alex."

"I'm not going to shut up just so you can show off,"

"What are you trying to get at Mercer?"

"You know what I'm saying MacGrath."

The two stared down for a bit before Claire got tired of the shenanigans. "Alright, let's move." And with that the Claymore pushed them down the hall and up the stairs.

The old innkeeper that had watched this strange conversation had been staring down the hallway before promptly shaking his head.

'_Ah how nice it is to be young_,' the old man thought smiling.

* * *

"Cole," Alex exclaimed as door closed behind the trio. "Do you have to act like a stupid motherfucker every time you have to open your mouth?"

Claire spun to face the conduit, her face now changed back into the visage of a hardened warrior, "Yes, I must agree. You probably made this much more complicated than it needed to be."

"Ah, sorry guys." Cole responded while rubbing the back of this head. "But you know . . . manners and all that jazz."

"Manners?" Alex snorted amusingly.

"Yea, I can't just let Claire just pay for our stuff."

Claire just stared at him confused, "Excuse me?"

"Yea, where I'm from, it's common courtesy for guys to treat the ladies, not the other way around."

"Cole," Alex remarked, "I don't think that courtesy really applies with women who wield seven feet long swords that kill the crap out of demonic mother-fuckers."

"Hey, all the more reason to treat Claire properly."

Claire just sighed as she heard the two men argue with each other. Again, Cole was treating her differently than she had anticipated. She could feel some old and suppressed human feelings well up again.

'_Cole Macgrath, you surprise me again._' Claire thought shaking her head. She smiled slightly but quickly changed her face.

"I think we should get back to the original topic at hand." Claire spoke as she tried to calm the two men.

Cole looked at Claire as he responded, "Yea. Besides, I hate arguing with this meat bag over here."

Alex just grumbled about their money as all three moved around the room. Claire sat on the bed while Cole and Alex placed himself on a seat and leaned against the wall respectively.

"As you two know," Claire explained slowly. "I am a Claymore and I kill Yoma."

The two men just stared at her with disbelief.

"O-k?" Cole questioned.

"Any more world shattering info you wanna tell us, Captain Obvious." Alex remarked.

Cole and Claire stared at Alex to shut up before Claire continued, "As I was saying, as a Claymore, I am usually assigned to jobs related with killing Yoma."

"And the reason why you're here's cause there's one of those freaks,"

Claire mentally cringed as Cole said freaks but continued, "Yes, there is one. However, as a Claymore I am not allowed into Rabona."

"Yea, the kid that we were with kept telling us about how the city's big on not letting unholy stuff in. Kinda annoying if you ask me."

"Correct, Cole. However, we recently received an emergency request by the name of Father Vincent. We are to meet him tonight."

Alex raised an eyebrow, "Isn't there a curfew tonight?"

"Yes so we will be taking the rooftop route. You two will need to keep up with me."

"Where are we actually meeting your priest guy?" Cole asked.

"Father Vincent has asked to meet us on the south room on the top floor of the church. I have quite ropes that we can all use to get up there."

"Wait," Cole said with a smile. "We're climbing?"

"Yes, is that a problem?"

"Problem? Ha, nah. I'll just be climbing up that church with my bare hands."

Claire looked at Cole as though he was crazy, "What?"

"Yea, I've kinda learned how to scale buildings."

"But the top floor is quite high up. How do you expect to climb all the way up there?"

"I got my ways," Cole assured Claire. "Don't worry about it."

Claire gave a look at the conduit with a frown and sighed. She quickly turned to Alex, "Do you need a rope or are you going to climb up too?"

"Nah," Alex growled out. "I'll just run."

"Run?"

"Yea . . . Don't ask."

The three went silent for a bit, each person giving the others a look. Suddenly, a knock came at the door to which Claire opened to find the innkeeper. The man held a large tray with three large bowls of tasty looking stew.

"Hello Ma'am. As I said before here are three bowls of my best stew." The man proceeded to the table and placed the bowls on said table.

"Thank you sir," Claire said as the man left.

Once the old man had gone, Cole immediately scooted the chair towards the table and looked at the food hungrily.

"Aww yea, time to eat."

Alex and Claire sat to their respective stews and started to eat. After three or four spoons of stew, however, the two stopped eating and leaned back in their chairs. Cole looked at the two with a curious face.

"You guys not hungry?"

Claire looked at the stew with an emotionless gaze, "As a Claymore, I do not need to eat as much as regular humans do."

Alex just looked at him, "As for me, you know why."

Cole just looked at both of them and towards their stew and paused for a bit before he spoke, "Meh, more for me."

Eventually the innkeeper took the bowls and the three prepared themselves. Cole wore a large hooded cloak that covered his face and hid his features effectively. Alex left the room to reform himself out of Claire's eyes and, when he came back, he his jacket had now changed into a similar cloak that Cole wore.

Claire removed her large cloak and over dress to reveal her slim and well sharpened warrior body. She wore a single piece of clothing that covered her chest area and her waist while her legs were covered with two tightly fitting leggings and leather shoes. She also followed suit with the two men and wore a smaller cloak that covered her face.

Cole looked at Claire taking in her features while Alex just looked at Cole and smirked.

With that the trio leapt through the open window and started to make their way to the church.

* * *

In the southern room of the top floor, one Father Vincent stood in a brightly lit room. His nervousness could clearly be seen from his rapid pacing and his sweaty brow. For this priest, he had perhaps taken the greatest risk of his life. Hiring the Claymore was beyond just a taboo, it was almost heresy. Claymores had the blood and flesh of the unnatural demonic Yoma, to ask for their help was like asking the devil for assistance.

'_We are being tested by our gods_,' the priest thought as he started to pace again. '_Please forgive us for our transgression._'

Before Father Vincent finished his prayer, a knock came to his door. As he turned, the door opened to reveal the small child that had just gotten to the church.

"Father Vincent," Denra said concerned, "Are you ok?"

The priest smiled, "Yes, Denra. I'm fine. I'm just praying."

"Shall I pray with you?"

"No no, it's fine. I would like to pray alone."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I will be with you shor—" "Tap Tap Tap"

The two turned to the sound and found a figure in the window. Denra looked at the figure and at Father Vincent in surprise.

"I'm sorry Denra, I think you should go. Don't speak of this to anyone please."

The child looked at the priest in concern and turned his gaze to the figure as the window opened. Denra's face changed from surprise into happiness, "Alex? Is that you?"

The figure grinned from under his cloak, "Hey kid, how you doing?"

"I'm doing fine," Denra said with a wide smile, "Where's Cole?"

"Oh, he should be here sometime . . . now."

As he said, another figure quickly rose over the railing and soon the figure slumped onto the ground slightly winded, "DAMN, Alex you son of a bitch. When you said you'd run, I didn't think you were literal man."

"I'm sorry," Father Vincent questioned, "Who are you? Are you with the . . . the woman?"

Cole dusted himself off as he stood, "Yea, she on her way here."

"Ah sorry. Um do you know when she will get here?"

The sound of rustled cloaks, however, alerted the four to Claire presence, "I am here Father Vincent, I am sorry for bringing these two along and startling you."

"A silver-eyed witch!" Denra gulped, "Are you . . . Claire?"

Claire looked at the boy in surprise, "Yes, how do you know my name?"

"Alex and Cole told me about you about how you killed a Yoma and saved them."

'_Saved us my ass_' Alex thought

'_Did we ever say that?_' Cole followed suit.

Claire smiled and shook her head before continuing, "Well, Father Vincent I think it is best that we now get the details for this job."

He nodded in agreement, "Y-Yes, Denra, I need to speak with these three. Do not inform the other members about this."

"Yes father." Denra responded. "Goodbye Alex and Goodbye Cole." and soon he was out of the room.

The four quickly sat around a table all ready to hear Father Vincent speak.

He stuttered at first, but he soon got his bearings. He spoke quietly and nervously, "T-t-the first to die . . . was Father Van, since them my colleagues have fallen victim one after another and each time it's happened in the Cathedral. In no way can this be made public. We are instruments of our lord. If it gets out that we're being picked off by a filthy monster. The people will lose faith."

Claire closed her eyes as she spoke, "Yoma treat all equally. Those who have money and those who don't, those who have status and those without. Whether they're believers or nonbelievers. Male or female, old or young— it matters not," She stayed silent and finished as she opened her eyes. "As long as they have flesh . . . they are all the same"

"Yea, I'll say" Cole spat out silently. Alex raised a brow but still stayed silent as Father Vincent looked on in shock at Claire. He stood up rapidly, but in fear, not anger. "P-please help us, I beg of you. Please I don't want to die. I can pay whatever you want."

At this point, the sweating and shivering figure of the priest even made the virus feel pity. However, Alex made a quick glance at the conduit and could see that his electric friend shifting uncomfortably in his own seat.

"To die so horribly, the way the others did . . ."

"Keep the money" Claire responded

The priest and Alex both gave the same confused look, "Huh?"

"After the job is done, someone will be sent to collect it. You will give it to him then. If I get killed there will be no reason to pay."

The priest looked at her in shock, "S-so ar-are you saying. . . ?"

"Yes, even though I'm inside the cathedral where the Yoma is hiding I can't sense its aura. I have taken a pill that helps me blend in by changing my eyes back to my original color. The only problem is, is that it has reduced my combat efficiency so there is a possibility that I can get killed in a surprise attack."

The priest looked at the Claire stunned and laughed nervously. Father Vincent couldn't help but turn around, "I am humbled," the priest said as he clutched his cross. "Here I am a servant of our lord and yet I worry only about saving myself."

Father Vincent massaged his head before he continued, "But you a half-monster, a loathsome slayer who is forbidden to step foot in this town . . . You already have decided to lay down your life fighting this creature. You aren't even concerned about your own fate."

The table creaked as Cole placed his feet on top of it. "Well she shouldn't have to worry," Cole grinned as he pointed to himself confidently. "She's got us watching her back."

Alex nodded with Cole, "One yoma's not gonna give any trouble."

* * *

Soon the three figures were again running across the rooftops. Alex had again run ahead of the two saying something about giving them alone time. Claire was thinking about how to reprimand Alex when Cole decided to talk to her

"So Claire," Cole spoke over her, "You're really weird you know."

She looked at him in with curiosity, "Hmm?"

Cole stared at her, "Don't you care whether ya live or die?"

"I do care."

"Then what's with that attitude of yours."

"Attitude?"

"Yea, your whole emotionless stare thing," Cole described as he waved his right hand over his face.

"I believe that being emotionally detached from my job is sufficient in me completing my job."

"Yea but it just makes you seem less . . . human."

"I am not human."

"Oh, don't say that."

"It's true," Claire claimed, "I am not human at all,"

"No, your fifty percent human."

"What does that have to do with this?"

Cole stopped in front of Claire stared at her with serious conviction, "It means your human enough."

Claire just folded her arm at this, "What are you getting at?" Cole continued to look at the Claymore. His eyes almost showed pity.

"What I'm trying to say is that I've been in your situation."

"Oh, really now?"

"Yea, yea I know," the Conduit responded with his arms raised. "I know it sounds weird, but I know what it means to be 'demonized'. Heh demonized,"

Claire just shook her head. "Let's just go, Cole." She took off running and Cole struggled to follow.

After a couple minutes, Claire was again starting to feel uncomfortable again. Why had Cole said all those things, did he really mean it? While she wasn't that bother about being treated like a monster, she was starting to feel strange whenever Cole had been pestering her about her humanity. It was almost like her . . . and Teresa.

'Push it away Claire,' she thought. "Just push it away."

They were just about to reach the inn when suddenly, several knifes came flying through the air barely hitting Claire in the back.

The duo turned to see nothing but empty air, only to feel another presence behind them.

As the sword came down in an attempt to cut Claire in half, Cole came up to tackle the presence away. However, despite the heavy armor, the man managed to dodge Cole's attack and kicked the conduit away with Claire rushing next to Cole.

"You know you two are breaking a curfew right?" the man in armor remarked. "You'll only have yourself to blame if you're mistaken for a monster and kill while you're running around up here."

Cole just stared down the man that had aimed to kill while Claire looked around as saw another figure.

"Heh, heh," the other man snickered slyly, "You guys are good, but not good enough. You may have dodged my partner's move but those knifes must really be digging into you real hard."

Cole looked at Claire with concern but could not confirm it as the armored man attacked again. This time Cole defended with his amp. "The hell is that," the armored man remarked. The tuning fork shaped weapon was nothing he had ever seen.

With a fierce push, Cole pushed the armored man away and saw that Claire had dodged a few more knifes. As the knife thrower came closer, however, Claire immediately threw her cloak, stunning the man.

"Aghh,"

The two stunned men signaled Cole and Claire's immediate retreat. However, a number of knives came in front of Cole and forced him to dodge straight into the armored man. Claire turned to Cole but turned back when he signaled her to go away.

"Sorry, but you're not getting away." the knife thrower said sneering.

Cole only chuckled as the two came closer. The two men suddenly rushed him hoping to hit him. However, as they came closer, the conduit poised himself for a jump and immediately ice formed under him. The ice rose swiftly launching him into the air and onto another roof. The two men gawked at Cole as he landed safely onto the rooftop.

"How the hell, what the, ah. WHAT?!" the knife thrower spoke.

The armored man stayed silent, but his mouth still gaped, "come on," he finally said, "we gotta look for them later. The other one was a woman."

The two then left the scene and the ice that Cole had created soon quickly shattered.

. . .

* * *

Off in the distance, a figure that had seen the battle stood on another rooftop. While the darkness of the night hid many of his features, his extremely strange look stood out in the moonlight. He wore a long white suit with areas of black and gray adding, black boots, gloves, and a mask that many would say was made of metal. To top it all off strange pack could be seen on his back as well that could be said to be . . . not of this world. The figure placed two fingers on the side of his mask and began to speak.

"Prime Conduit and Bioweapon Zeus has been found. Prepare test subjects 37 and W9 for transport. Test shall commence after 4800 hours."

* * *

**Thanks for reading dudes.**

**This is arc is turning out to be more and more awesome by the minute**

**Please keep reviewing the new Chapters guys.**

**On a side note, Alex Pairing poll is UP!**

**Please check out the claymore Wikia for info on the Claymores that you do not know of and check my profile for the poll.**

**The Poll will have the reason why Alex chooses her and the Poll will be ****_BLIND_****. No biased choices from you guys.**

**If you want different choices please send me a PM or write a review explaining why that character should be with Alex.**

**I will not reveal the pairing for Alex until the pairing is shown in the story.**

**Thanks for all the Luciela writing help, but now I'm sort of on the fence with Luciela vs Clarice. PLEASE KEEP VOTING ON THE POLL!**

**Also, from what I can tell, you guys don't want Alex being a bad guy.**

**Ok, that's fine; I don't want Alex Mercer to be a bad guy either. Besides I hated how that went in Prototype 2. If he does "become evil," it won't be so much as evil as much as him temporarily losing control of his emotions. That makes MUCH more sense. **

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	11. The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 5

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

**Chapter ****10**

**The Holy City of Rabona Arc part ****5**

Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**Alright guys here you go**

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* * *

A well night's rest came for Claire as she slept in her large fluffy bed, but, alas, her Claymore nature woke her up to the sound of the night wind. The sun was quite close to the horizon when she looked. The orange tinge barely covered the sky when she turned away from the window and faced towards the wall.

Quite a number of thoughts were starting to flow through her mind. The biggest thing that she was thinking about, though, was Cole's constant pestering. These unusual feelings were starting to make her feel uncomfortable and, from her experience, most uncomfortable feelings could turn towards the worse. She was going to have to ask him to stop pestering him.

As the sun rose higher, she got dressed and left her room. She maneuvered down the hall as silently as possible and stopped in front of Cole and Alex's room. The door creaked open and Claire quickly peered inside. Cole was laid out all over the bed, snoring loudly and sleeping soundly. As she looked closer at the sleeping figure, she could tell that a strange device was attached to both of his ears. Her ears could catch the very weak sounds coming from the device and this peculiar device started to interest her.

"Hey," Claire turned to see Alex sitting in the corner of the room. "The hell are you trying to pull here?"

Claire simply stared at the hooded man. Alex always made her feel like she was being watched by a predator. "I wasn't going to pull anything,"

Alex stared at her with his cold brown eyes, "Nothing, huh. Could 'a damn knocked on the door."

"I wasn't trying to disturb your sleep"

"Well maybe you wanted us to stay asleep for good."

Claire just shook her head and changed the subject, "What are those things in Cole's ears."

"Don't try to bullshit your way out of this one," Alex snarled with a glare. "You might be able to shake your ass for Cole but you can't fool me."

"Excuse me," Claire exclaimed in surprise.

Alex stood up and started to walk towards her, "I know what you're doing Claire, in fact I had someone try the same thing. Karen Parker was her name. She tried to butter me up get me to let my guard down. Then she betrayed me and tried to get me killed. After I got out of that pathetic trap you know what I did to her?"

The distance between Alex and Claire were now unbearably nonexistent. Alex's brown eyes were starting to get filled with rage and started to slowly change into a crimson red. "I hunted her down like the little rat she was and killed her . . . **painfully**."

Claire held her ground on the outside, but on the inside she could feel a dark fear edging closer and closer to her. "I have no intention of hurting you or Cole."

Alex stayed for a minute and backed off. He turned around, his voice still holding its intimidating tone, "For your sake, you better hope it does. If you try to do anything to us, I will kill you."

"Now that just sounds gay Alex," quipped a smiling Cole. Claire and Alex quickly faced Cole, slightly embarrassed.

"How long were you awake?" Claire asked.

"Enough to hear that you were looking at my wonderful face and notice my earbuds," Cole remarked as he played with the earbuds. "Am I that good looking Claire? Most women do fall for my roguish charms."

And there it was again. Claire again started to feel uncomfortable and it just made her frustrated. "I was merely wondering what were in your ears and now that I know, I think we should all leave and meet Father Vincent again."

Cole put away the small music player and his earphones as the other two just stood and watched each other. Claire could now tell that, whatever Alex was, Alex was definitely not human. Not Yoma . . . but something else entirely. In fact, the fear that she felt was also familiar. Something dark and twisted like . . . like . . . Pricilla

Suddenly the door came open violently and two guards in armor came through. One of the soldiers spoke in an orderly fashion, "Don't move we're looking for Yoma."

Cole was still trying to get his pants on, "Uhhhhhhh, could I put my clothes on."

The guard just stared at him for a couple seconds and sighed, "Fine, finish what you're doing."

As the conduit finished preparing himself, Alex couldn't help but speak, "So what happened?"

"The half-eaten bodies of two soldiers were found yesterday in the cathedral," the armored guard said. Claire couldn't help but raise her eyebrow in wonder.

Cole eventually finished his clothing himself and the two guards moved the trio out of the room and into the inn's lobby.

"Yeah," a familiar voice called out. "She was about that height. Looked pretty suspicious, running around the rooftops last night. Didn't you three arrive in town yesterday?"

When Cole and Claire looked at the speaker, they could recognize the knife thrower from before. He was barely shorter than the other men in the room, to where Claire was just slightly shorter than him, but he had the biggest attitude of them all.

"Yea," Cole responded in a darker tone than usual, "What about it?"

The man just smiled as he walked closer, "Hey buddy take it easy. Me and my friend, Galk, here were just trying to track down—"

"It's 'my friend and I'." Alex interrupted.

The knife thrower looked at him with surprise and it quickly morphed into frustration.

"Shut up,"

The armored man, Galk, however, came to Alex's aid, "Sid, you know he's right. It is 'My friend and I' not me and my friend."

Alex nodded to himself, "Thank you. Finally, someone who understands the fine tuning of grammar."

Sid could only look back at the two men and shake his head. "Anyways that's not the point! The point is, is that this woman here is most likely a claymore."

"Woah, shorty," Cole sarcastically responded raising both his hand up, "That's an awfully **TALL** jump to conclusions you got there."

Sid only paused, ". . . what did you say?"

Alex just grinned as he joined in on the fun, "Hey Cole, he can't hear you. I think you should go **DOWN** to his level."

Sid was starting to fume, but Cole couldn't just stop the burn streak, "Hey, hey. Don't worry about this little buddy. Let the adults talk ok?"

Alex was about to continue but was stopped by Claire, "Stop this you two." With that, the two men shut their mouths and just looked around the room.

Sid smiled as he saw the beautiful woman, "Hello, are you just a pretty one?"

Claire said nothing as she gave the man an emotionless stare. Sid was only encouraged to speak more even placing a hand under her chin.

"Why don't you just leave these two and come with me, I'll be sure to give you a good ti—"

Sid immediately felt a hand on his arm before he could finish his sentence. A cold and deathly voice came from Cole's mouth as he spoke. "Let her go you short fucker."

Sid looked at the conduit in surprise and in anger. "What the hell did you say."

Cole just looked at Sid, "You know what the hell I said. Let her go."

Sid obliged but still stared at Cole, "You know what I can do to you? I can get your ass EXECUTED!"

"And bitch, what are you gonna do now then."

Sid just stared at the conduit swearing to himself silently before Galk put his hand on Sid's shoulder.

"Let's go, we're done here."

Sid looked at Galk with contempt but knew he was right. With one swift motion, the guards left the building swiftly with Galk and Sid leaving last. Sid gave one last look to Cole before he closed the door.

"That was fucking stupid Cole" Alex spat out

"I agree, you may have added some further complications"

Cole wouldn't have it, "I wasn't just gonna stand there while he had his way with you. He kept making me remember the militia assholes back where I was from. Dirt-bags thought they had all the power in the world and that they could do anything they wanted. Assholes like that need to be taught a lesson."

Claire just shook her head and again she felt the uncomfortable feeling again.

"Cole," Claire paused contemplating her next words, "I think you need to stop doing this."

Cole gave a surprised look, "What?"

"I mean, I just want you to stop trying to . . . to just talk to me. You keep talking about things that I just don't get."

". . . I just thought that you'd—"

"Please Cole enough," Claire just closed her eyes. "If you're looking for kindness from me, give it up. You'd be hurt and even betrayed eventually."

"Claire, if you think it's about me—"

"If you do care, then please know that I'm expendable." Cole and Alex looked at her strangely, "In the end, I am here for my mission. Whether I'm humiliated, spat upon, raped, or even killed the mission would always come first."

Claire turned towards the hallway and walked a bit before stopping, "Once this mission is over, I must ask find all ways to avoid me. You add far too many complications for me to comprehend."

With that, the Claymore went into her room to prepare herself for her meeting.

As for the two men, Alex and Cole had just been staring down the hall. Alex was the first to speak.

"Cole, the hell is wrong with you."

Cole raised an eyebrow, "What? Nothing's wrong."

"Bullshit," Alex snapped back. "You flipped off at those guards and Claire flipped off at you. What did you do?"

"The guards were just religious assholes. Reminds me too much about Bertrand and his men I guess."

"Ok," Alex said as he leaned against the wall, "That's a start. Now what the hell's the crap about you and Claire?"

"I . . . I kinda . . . well. . . I've been trying to talk to her about . . . herself."

Alex just rolled his eyes, "She's a biological weapon made to kill things. She doesn't think about herself."

"And you're a virus so shut up."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You're not human and you got more humanity than what men get over years. She's half human and she's as cold as a bitch on ice. I just don't get it."

"Just give it up Cole. You won't change her or be able to help her."

"I'm not giving up Alex."

"What's your thing with Claire, huh? I don't get it."

"If I got a chance to help anyone, I'm not gonna stop until I finish it."

"Cole, it's pointless."

"Bullshit, nothing is pointless. I'm not useless alright. I can't . . . just can't let anyone down ok."

Alex just stayed silent as he watched the conduit, ". . . I never said you were useless and how the hell are you letting people down?"

Cole's speaking got frantic, "I-I got powers to help people and I'm gonna use it to help people alright? In anyway, I can."

"Your powers aren't related to why you've been trying to get Claire to be more human."

"Well it makes god damn sense to fucking ME. GOT IT."

And with that Alex's brain clicked as he started to understand the conduit. As the hero of Empire City, he had the power to change everything. He helped a city get itself off its feet and saved it from utter destruction several times. In New Marias, he ended the rule of a tyrannical religious leader and, from what Alex had gathered, potentially saved his world from a deadly plague.

So when Cole found himself in a situation where he couldn't do anything to help someone, it killed him. Cole's past with Trish's death only solidified this for Cole and served to be his first feeling of hopelessness and weakness. Trish's death would constantly echo in his life, pushing him to the depths of hell just to help his fellow man. It was effective to say the least, but Alex just couldn't let this man fall just from one bad experience.

". . . Cole," Alex started slowly, "It wasn't your fault that Trish died."

"FUCK YOU, I COULD HAVE BEEN STRONGER," Cole yelled, "ITS ALWAYS MY FUCKING FAULT SHIT HAPPENS."

"Calm down Cole."

Cole walked to a wall and slammed his fist. The dent that was left showed the shape of the powerful fist of the conduit. Cole put his back to the wall and started to slide down.

"My fucking future self couldn't even keep her alive in his timeline. I couldn't keep her alive in mine. My future self releases the plague and gets the beast a head start. What the hell am I good for if I always fuck things up?"

"Cole," Alex sat next the curled man and placed a hand on Cole's shoulder, "I am a bastard."

"What?"

"Just. . . go along with it. Anyways, back where I was, I was a monster. A thing that just ate things when he felt like it and kill crap when he felt it was necessary. I didn't care about life or shit or people or anything. Now look at me."

Cole just looked at the virus silently before Alex continued, "Granted, I don't agree with every little thing you do and I may think that you act like a dumbass, but I have to say that I am a damn improvement over the old Alex."

Cole chuckled, "You're still damn ugly."

"Shut up," Alex said rolling his eyes, "The point that I'm trying to get at is that. One you can change people." Alex paused as he pointed at himself, "and convince them to behave a bit. Two, you aren't a useless bastard. You're a damn hero and no bullshit should tell you otherwise. Thirdly, I think you should seriously stop pitying Claire."

"I don't pity her," Cole responded, "I'm just relating to her."

"Relating? To a woman who cleaves things with seven feet long swords."

Cole stared out the window, "When I look at Claire, I see someone who was given a chance at being more than what they are. I see someone that can have hope within something that can't have hope. The thing is though . . . she's got . . . baggage."

"Baggage?"

"Something's tying her down. Dehumanizing herself is just a coping mechanism that she's using to keep herself from feeling pain, but I can still tell that she's in pain either way. I . . . I just want to help her cause I know how it feels."

"To have baggage?"

"No," Cole sighed, "To have lost someone."

Alex nodded as he looked away from the Conduit. "Well in that case, you need to just switch it up. Just stop trying to get in her face about this." Alex stretched a bit and stood up before he continued, "but as for your code of conduct and crap, I guess it's all well and good to keep around."

"So what are you saying?"

". . . Just be yourself I guess, but don't go up in everyone's face about it."

Silence broke between the two before Alex stuck out his hand and Cole used it to pull himself up.

"If that's the case then, I should just . . . stay away from Claire for a while."

"Yea head to Denra, I'll leave a note for Claire."

Cole quickly got himself up on his feet and left out the door while Alex scribbled a small note down on a piece of paper. Placing it under the door, Alex followed Cole out the door.

A silent minute passed after the two men left only to be followed with an open door. Claire was holding the note in her hand.

"We don't need you. We'll do our own searching." It said.

Claire looked towards the door trying to understand what Cole and Alex had been talking about. One thing kept bugging her though.

_I know how it feels . . . to have lost someone._

* * *

**Say am I making this too melodramatic?**

**Just asking please review**

**Please keep reviewing the new ****C****hapters guys.**

**On a side note, Alex Pairing poll is UP!**

**Thanks for all the Luciela writing help, but now I'm sort of on the fence with Luciela vs Clarice. The votes have now equalized with Luciela vs Clarice. PLEASE KEEP VOTING ON THE POLL!**

**So ok, please do the usual criticizing thing.**

**NEXT UPDATE: 10/07**

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**I'm writing another fic!**

**Please give it a read! (When I actually get it up)**


	12. The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 6

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

**Chapter 11**

**The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 6**

Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**Sorry for the late update**

**OMG FLUBBED COMPUTER but its ok now**

**Current Review Count: 78**

**View Count: 5600!**

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* * *

The calm whispers of prayers echoed throughout the cathedral as Claire "prayed" in Father Vincent presence. Father Vincent presented a kind face but those that knew him could tell something was off. The priest stayed as quiet as possible as to not alert anyone to his and Claire's conversation.

"Two guards were killed last night," he breathed out, "It happened inside the Cathedral like the other times."

Claire still kept her calm façade, "Did both of them have their insides eaten?"

"Yes. There are more victims every day. This week alone there have been five,"

'_Five?_' Claire mentally exclaimed, '_The last five yoma even limited themselves down to one kill every two weeks. Either we got more than one Yoma eating at an increased rate, which I doubt, or . . ._'

"It seems to have a voracious appetite,"

Father Vincent gulped in fear, "Vo. . . Voracious appetite?"

"Usually Yoma don't eat that much," Claire started calmly, "It's enough for them to eat the guts of a human once every week or two. But the longer a monster lives the more its appetite grows. They get more cunning and stronger. We call them 'Voracious Eaters.'"

"How do you know if it's not just more than one Yoma?" The priest questioned sincerely.

"If there was more than one normal yoma, the amount needed to warrant a need for frequent feeding like this would be about nine or ten. If there were that many, I would have been noticed by one of them and attacked by now."

Father Vincent stayed quiet, taking in the information. ". . . I see. What are you going to do then?"

"From what I can guess, the Voracious Eater is hiding in the Cathedral and does its hunts there at night. It knows that my kind can't come here into the city and that we're the only ones who can see them."

" . . . And at night the Cathedral is heavily guarded thus preventing you from getting in anyways," said Father Vincent, realizing the beast's plan.

"Yes. I'm afraid that this beast has given his hunting grounds quite a lot of thought."

"What do you think needs to be done?"

". . . On your part, nothing." Claire responded shocking the father, "All that you need to do is to be wary around people who frequently keep themselves within the Cathedral."

"Wait, everyone? I can't say that I don't trust anyone in this Cathedral. We're all like a family here."

Claire just calmly stood up and walked away, "Abandon your notions; a Yoma in disguise can fool anyone . . . even family members."

The Father looked in shock when Claire left the Cathedral, feeling the paranoia stained in her voice and words. He could tell that Claire was a bit colder than usual.

* * *

Denra had been sweeping the stony halls of the Cathedral when he was called down to the guard's room. As much as he disliked doing hard labor, he couldn't help but wonder why he had been called down.

Heck he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to him for the past week.

In the time frame of one week, he had been bored out of his mind as he waited for an escort to Rabona, fearing for his life when the bandits had attacked, amazed by Cole's amazing holy powers, and bored again in the same week.

'_The twin goddesses' have such strange humor, but I must say that I have been blessed._'

Not only had these two men saved his village, but they had led his father finally to his faith, freeing his soul. Furthermore, they finally got Rana, his sister, and Eli, the kind workhand, together after forever.

'_Why they thought they were subtle, I don't know_.' Denra mused, '_Even a cow would have figured the two out just by looking at them._'

Eventually, Denra had finally shifted his thoughts back to why he had called. He thought back throughout the day as he tried to think of any reason. He had met the guard captain, Ganasu, sometime yesterday. Ganasu was a kind and wizened man. Even though he was not a priest, Denra gave him as much respect as any respectable man of the clergy.

Now that he had been thinking about it, Ganasu hadn't said anything about meeting up with him for any reason, thus his question went unanswered as he opened the door to the Guard's room.

Upon entering, Denra saw two men that had been locked up in a cell.

"Mr. Alex! Mr. Cole! Why are you guys in there?"

"Well . . ." Cole said with a funny look on his face.

Alex scowled, "This idiot thought that he could just climb up the building just cause he knew you."

Denra just looked at Alex strangely, "Wait. . . why are you here then?"

Alex just paused and looked at the ground, "I . . . thought . . . the same thing." A scowl formed on the Virus' face

Cole and Denra gave a little snicker as Alex just gave a grumble. The Captain, Ganesu, smiled as he watched the three interact. Cole and Alex had given the man quite a startle when he had found them climbing into the 4th story window.

A number of thieves had tried many different and bizarre schemes over the years to steal from the church, but was as insane as this. When Ganesu got his reports back, none of the guards could find rope used to get themselves up the tower. Upon asking where they hid the ropes, the two bluntly responded that they had merely climbed up. From the rough marks on Cole's hands, Ganesu could tell that he definitely wasn't lying . . . but still thought he was crazy.

When Cole and Alex explained the reason why they were there, the bald and bearded captain was reluctant to let them get close to Denra. However, now that he could see that the three clearly had a history, he couldn't help but quirk a smile himself.

"Alright," Ganasu said in a joking tone, "Since you three clearly know each other, let me get you out of that cell."

Cole smirked, "Ah, damn and I was just about to make a summer home here."

Alex rolled his eyes in response as Ganesu let out a small laugh.

"Ha, you got a smart mouth,"

"Hey, I'm told it's an endearing quality of mine," Cole responded.

Alex smirked, "Do you even know what endearing means?"

"Shut up, Alex."

Ganasu opened the cell and the three left the celled guard room and came into the stony hall with an attachment of guards.

Cole looked at the men with suspicion but Alex just patted Cole's shoulder, shaking his head. The three meandered down the hall and the two adults whispered to the little priest.

"Denra," Cole started, "before we talk about all that weird Yoma crap, are you ok?"

"What do you mean?"

Cole was a bit hesitant, ". . . Uh-um. . . No one's . . . touched you right?"

"Touched me?"

Alex immediately smacked the conduit upside the head, "What the hell's wrong with you."

"Hey man," Cole pulled Alex aside, "I saw that on the news with the Pope and shit. Can't trust these old religious weirdoes."

"Not our place, not our universe, and DEFINATELY NOT THE DAMN TIME," Alex hissed.

Denra looked at them confused as all hell, as the two men whispered to each other. It almost took them five minutes before they finally started walking again.

"Fine, fine. I'll be quiet then," Cole said as gave an annoyed look. He quickly lowered his voice again before he continued, "Denra, do you know anything about the Yoma attacks that have been going on?"

Denra answered with a small squeak as the three continued walking on, "Yes, last night killed two guards almost an hour after you were here."

"In the cathedral?" Alex looked at the child questioningly. The virus did not sense the creature when he was here the last time.

"Yes, the nun that found the two guards were in quite a shock."

Cole frowned, "How bad was it?"

"Horrible, apparently the two guards had no chance to retaliate. Their armor was pierced in their stomach region. Their guts were all spewed out."

Alex stopped for a second, "Wait, their guts were spewed out?"

"Yes, they said that while much of the guts were eaten, some of them were flung around the bodies."

Alex gave a hard and serious to Denra and contemplating for a bit before shrugging it off.

"Alright, enough about Yoma and crap then," Cole spoke up in a happily, "I gotta ask you a question."

Denra raised an eyebrow, "A question?"

"Yea, its been bugging me all this time."

"Oh," Denra smiled, "Do you wish to convert?"

"No, no, I've always wondered. Does God ever take a shi—"

Alex locked the Conduit's head before he could finish his sentence. Cole just struggled in the invincible super weapon's arms as Alex spoke, "Uhhh Cole's just gonna drop whatever he was gonna ask. You're probably busy and we gotta go anyways."

"Ok Mr. Alex. I hope you find that Yoma then."

"Yea cya kid," Alex grinned still choking the conduit.

Soon the two diverged from Denra and finally was led to the outside of the Cathedral. The guards stared at the pair strangely as Alex still had kept Cole. Eventually, when they had gone a sufficient distance away from the cathedral, Alex finally released Cole from his powerful neck hold.

"Damn," Cole shouted rubbing his neck, "You coulda broke my neck!"

Alex crossed his arms, "Don't say stupid shit then."

"Hey it was a serious question."

"Yea, serious and dumb as fuck."

Cole gave a scowl and kept rubbing his neck, "So Alex . . . whatcha you get from sneaking around the place?"

"Not much cause of your bitch ass," Alex snapped, "If you weren't there I could have checked out everything."

"You were gonna freakin consume that guard!"

"So?"

"The hell did I say about killing innocent people?"

"Yea, you said 'the needs of the many—'"

"Ok don't pull that bullshit on me."

"Well, this is just annoying."

"Ok fuck this, what did you find out Alex?"

"Well, I can definitely tell you that shit died."

Cole rolled his eyes, "No shit, you got anything else,"

"No, not anything . . . definite."

"Definite?" Cole questioned with a raised brow, "You holdin somethin out on me?"

Alex's eyes became unfocused and narrowed down, "No, just got a weird feeling"

Cole grinned, "What you're psychic now?"

"No . . . just got a feeling you know." Alex's face showed absolute seriousness, "There was something off about the kid's description"

Cole's expression changed to seriousness as well. "Denra's? I don't think he'd lie to us."

"Yea that's the thing. The kid was talking about how there were guts around the body."

"So what, they ate like pigs."

Alex shook his head, "Yoma, no matter how ferocious, will eat every little bit. When I ate the guy, the five always tried to savor every bite."

"Well, maybe this guy is killing more than he needs to eat."

"Why would a Yoma, one that's smart enough to keep himself stuck in the one place where Claymore's aren't allowed, start killing more than he needs to eat? He's wasting his food and god damn grabbing to much attention."

"I don't know man. Shit happens. Hell, we're the best examples of getting the luck of the draw. You died and became a viral superman while I got lucky enough to have a gene that gives me super powers."

"Whatever," Alex shrugged as he started walking away, "I'm gonna go back in there for a bit."

"Hey, don't eat anyone."

"I won't. I just gotta check something."

* * *

As night came, the female figure of the Claymore Claire leapt out of a window. The clear night sky gave her some moon light as she ran across the roofs yet again. The silence that came with the night felt different this time around.

Most quiet nights had given her time to think about her fight with the Yoma or had given time to reminisce. While this one did give her time to think, it was what she was thinking about that was troubling her.

Cole had yet again stirred up old memories of her past. Uselessness, weakness, and death . . .

'_Does he really understand? Does anyone really understand?_'

Most Claymores, while they avoided normal interactions, were actually known to form friendships and bonds with other Claymores. Claire, on the other hand, had never felt the need to work with other organization warriors let alone befriended her fellow warriors. There were some warriors that she was on good terms with, however, she had never considered them friends. Friendship wasn't something that she was never built to do. She was built to kill Yoma . . . a commitment she had made long ago.

Cole, however, had gone on to be something else. At first, Cole seemed normal like a normal man with friendlier tendencies despite his powers. She had never expected him to try and understand her nor had she expected him to prod on her life. He was curious and dangerous, a bad combination.

The problem was trying to find out what she should do. The first idea of accepting his bizarre behavior didn't work. He was starting to revive old memories, bad memories. The next idea that she tried out was to answer his questions about her, but that only served to raise more questions for him and annoy her further. Now she was trying to avoid her, but that was starting to fail miserably as well.

Despite her attempts to push Cole out of her mind, the action only served to make her think about Cole more. Who was this man that claimed to know how she felt? Why did he insist on knowing a monster like her? Why did she insist on treating her like a human?

'_AND WHY CAN'T HE JUST LEAVE MY HEAD_'

However, her thoughts were going to have to go on hold. Two figures took positions behind her and in front of her. Both of their faces were familiar.

"Heh heh, leaping across the roof tops, isn't as fast as running on the ground" said a smirking Sid.

Galk simply gazed at Claire with a look of a professional soldier. Claire narrowed her eyes and felt annoyed. They already knew what she was and, thus, the point of hiding her face now became irrelevant.

With one swift movement, her hood flew off and Claire revealed her beautiful silver eyes. The two men stood stunned for a second. They could tell that the kind and gentle woman that they saw at the inn earlier that day was a façade. This battle hardened and cold warrior had shown her true colors and that sent chills down their spines.

However, Claire had other plans.

"Sorry," Claire suddenly spoke as she brandished two short blades, "But I don't have time."

"Oh?" Sid said still giving a snake like grin, "Where's that huge sword that all you Claymores lug around."

Claire gave a hard stare towards Sid. "If you're going to come at me, go ahead," she responded as if she didn't hear the man's last comment, "I won't hold back if you get in my way."

Galk readied his great sword toward his side as Sid snapped his hands, revealing numerous knifes. The two men watched each other in anticipation as well as the Claymore

"Sorry, but the law here says that anything unholy must be eliminated." Galk said bolting the men into action.

Within seconds, the two men were descending upon her. Sid took the advantage to throw four knives at Claire. The knives flew swiftly towards her but they all were blocked by two swift motions of her blades.

A great sword from Galk came flying down towards the female warrior's back and it forced her to retaliate. The sword clashed with the two swords and the weight of the large sword forced Claire to place one blade behind the other. In retaliation, Claire weaved around the great sword and sent one of her blades in an attempt to cut his face.

Galk's hand shot up and safely blocked the short blade as several knife flew in her direction. With a roll towards the side, she had effectively dodged the knives and had got away from the hulking armored man.

'_This really is annoying,_' she said to herself. '_If Cole were here . . ._'

She stopped herself before she continued, '_Stop thinking about Cole, Claire. You've always worked alone for all your life._'

She was quickly dragged out from her thoughts when more knives came towards her. With only moments to spare, she jumped up into the air and realized that a large group soldiers had start to gather around the area. By the time she landed, men started to come onto the rooftops and fill the streets.

"Heh," Sid spoke out confidently, "Give up witch. We got you surrounded."

She looked around her and the overwhelming numbers started to make her worry. Killing humans was absolutely forbidden and, in this situation, the odds of her getting out without harming one of them was starting to look grim.

But then a voice shouted out to calm her fears.

"HEY FUCK FACES"

Everyone turned to see two airborne figure jump towards the group. Sid, Galk, and Claire realized Cole had spoken. As Claire focused her eyes, however, she could see a glowing blue orb appear in his hands.

As their feet reached the roof, the armored soldiers came storming towards them and, at that moment, Claire watched Cole release his Ionic Freeze. The initial wave of energy emanated from him, sending a chilling wind over everyone. With that wave, time seemed to slow as the conduit's blue org released out in a large wave of ice, freezing everyone except Claire, Galk, and Sid.

Alex gave Cole a concerned look, "Um, what was that about killing people?"

"They're not dead," he said with a grin, "Just trapped in ice for a bit"

Alex shrugged. He would have given a lecture about the implications of hypothermia and frostbite but they had other matters to attend two. Galk and Sid were still shocked at Cole's attack and Claire mouth was gaping at the raw power that he presented.

'_First, he can shoot out strange lights and now he can freeze people? This is unbelievable._'

Suddenly, a loud scream came out from the Cathedral; all five unfrozen individuals turned their heads startled by the noise.

"Damn it, it's attacked!" Claire shouted to the two super humans. They nodded to her and they quickly dropped down to the street level.

Various guards had started to wander around the door after the scream had echoed out. The guard opened it slightly and Claire swiftly swam through the guards and into the Cathedral. The guards never saw her go in, but immediately sprang into action when Cole and Alex came up to them.

"Hey there's a damn curfew you idiots. Get out of here!"

Cole raised an eyebrow, "The hell? You let her in!"

"What woman? You dare lie to us?"

Alex started looking around noticing some more armored soldiers starting to surround them, "Uh, Cole, I don't suppose you could do that ice trick again right now."

Cole also moved his gaze and grinned, "Ah crap, I didn't expect them to get reinforcements that quick."

"How long will it take to recharge."

"An hour or so,"

"Damn"

Cole lifted his amp up and out of his backpack's holster. The guards jumped a bit when they saw it light up. Alex simply took a fighting stance with his fists up and his legs spread out.

"No kills, Alex,"

"Yea, yea. I got it."

* * *

As she moved inside the Cathedral, Claire ran around in a desperate search for any traces of Yoki. The problem was, was that the pill she had been taken had been dulling her ability to sense Yoki and the smell of blood was too spread out to use as a way of finding the creature.

Thus she had to check every room and every corridor of the lower floor. Each empty room frustrated Claire as she imagined the horrors that the victim was feeling.

Finally, a scream rang out leading Claire to a large door that led to the inner sanctum of the church. With an ear placed on the door she listened in, trying to determine if the Yoma was, in fact, there.

A small whisper of mercy alerted her and she quickly kicked the door smelling the blood on the ground and around her. Her gaze followed the trail of blood up and up until . . .

"Well damn, I didn't expect a Claymore here." Said a filtered voice of a gruff man.

She had fully expected a large disgusting Yoma feasting on a young nun's guts, with its hands tearing into her and ripping her to shreds. Instead, another figure had appeared a completely new figure that she had never seen nor would have imagined to have seen.

Right in front of her was a figure dressed in long white suit made of a material that she could not describe. Various grays and blacks seemed to be on specific parts of the figure's body that made him seem like a strange metal monster. His face, in fact, was covered by a metal mask that only added to added edge of making him seem like a monster.

A gasp and cough led Claire's attention to the monster's arm, taking her off her guard. The arm had penetrated straight through the nun's stomach and, with a squelch, the arm was removed leaving an absolutely dead body on the floor.

"Now then Claymore," the monster said sending shivers down Claire's spine, "Lets deal with you."

* * *

**Dat Awesome CliffHanger**

**Again, sorry for dropping this chapter late for you guys**

**To make things up to you guys I will update on the 12****th**** or, in other words, tomorrow**

**Anyways keep Reading and Reviewing and All that jazz**


	13. The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 7

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

**Chapter 12**

**The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 7**

Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**Alright Then**

**PLEASE ENJOY THIS EPOC FIGHT SCENE DOODS**

**Also, if you like this story do you think you guys can support my other story, "Zerglings Always Come in Pairs"?**

**It's a Starcraft and Warcraft Crossover revolving around two Zerglings stuck on Azeroth.**

**If you guys don't want to read it . . . (Sad Face) :(**

* * *

Almost immediately, the metal faced monster dashed towards Claire sending a fatal punch towards her. Claire barely managed to get up her swords to block a punch aimed right at her heart when the monster just chuckled at the Claymore's efforts.

"Oh, that's just rich," he spoke chillingly as he pulled back, "Good, I like it when I have some fun around here."

Claire lashed out with one of the swords aimed to his stomach but a quick jump backwards helped him dodge the swift attack. With the momentum from a small jump, he gave a fierce round-house kick towards her face.

She ducked under the leg and, with a quick stab, her blade was met with bleeding flesh as it stuck itself into his leg. He tsk'ed and pulled back a bit, looking down at his recent injury.

"What do ya know, you actually got me pretty good," he pulled out the blade with a gruesome squelch and played around with the blade in his hand. "Too bad that your little sticks don't do shit against me." With a crunch the blade was crushed in his hand, shocking Claire.

'_What is this monster?,_' she thought, '_Most Yoma wouldn't even be able to break the blade in half let alone crush it to dust._'

The wound on the monster's leg stopped bleeding and, with a little wiggle of his leg, Claire could tell that it had healed up. He rolled his shoulders and put his hands on his neck giving two through cracks.

"Well then, I think I've played enough games, why don't I just kill you."

Suddenly, the figure dashed forward in a blur and kicked Claire in the stomach. The force sent her hurling towards the door and breaking it to splinters. She would have hit a wall, but luckily Cole had grabbed her in the nick of time.

"I heard you needed some help Claire," Cole smiled.

Claire glared in frustration, "What took you so long in the first place?"

Cole stepped back slightly surprised, "Whoa, sorry. I thought you didn't want us with you?"

"It doesn't matter," Claire responded, "What matters now is that we have to fight whatever's in there."

"Yea, I know," Alex responded seriously, "So, what do we got?"

"You got me."

The trio quickly turned to the crashed wall. The crunching on through the shattered door appeared the metal faced figure. Alex and Claire looked at the monster and stood at the ready, but Cole just gave a look of shock.

"How!" Cole shouted

Alex turned his head, "What's wrong,"

"I know this fucker. Well, his group, but yea, how the fuck is he here?"

Claire looked at him in surprise, "This monster is a part of a group."

"Yea," Cole responded with a fierce gaze, "We gave these fuckers a lot of names: Ice freaks, Cold head, but their actual name and the name they use is Vermaak 88."

"I'm flattered that you would remember our old name," said the filtered gruff voice

Cole stared on, "How the hell did you get here ya freak."

"Maybe, I wanted to fuck with you," he hissed giving a laugh

"Funny, last I checked you guys went insane."

"Ha," he laughed, "You're damn amusing. Don't know shit and you assume everything's gonna go your way."

Cole glared at the soldier, "The hell are you saying?"

The air around the metal face man seemed to grow ominous as he spoke, "Oh nothing, just nothing at all"

"Enough with this cryptic bullshit," Alex shouted as his arm changed into a large blade. Claire jumped back in surprise but no one else gave a second thought, "I'm just gonna consume you and get answers that way."

"Fine, I hate holding secrets anyways," the soldier responded.

Alex dashed forward, at a speed that surprised Claire, and whipped out his blade arm horizontally. The soldier easily ducked under the slash but the momentum that Alex had allowed him to pull into a vertical slash. The blade came down in rush of speed and gave a small cut over the masked man's chest.

The Vermaak soldier sent a flying knee to Alex, meeting its mark. Alex stumbled backwards as Claire and Cole rushed towards the masked man. Cole released a stream of bolts at him, but the man danced around the shots. Cole felt his frustration rise each time the man successfully dodged. It was almost as if he was reading Cole's mind.

When Claire rushed around the soldier, Cole stopped his electrical assault and followed with a direct approach. With extreme speed and unusual coordination, Claire rapidly slashed at the soldier's upper body while Cole swung at his legs behind him.

The first and second slash Claire's lone short blade managed to dig into the man's arms but he quickly turned around towards Cole and grabbed his amp. Cole sent energy through the amp but found it was ineffective as the man grabbed Cole with another arm and easily threw him at Claire showing no effects of electrocution.

The three gathered themselves they found themselves panting and sweating from the fight. Claire, herself, couldn't believe how fast Alex and Cole moved.

'_They're fast!_' She thought, '_Their fighting styles may be rough, but they make it up with experience_'

Claire then noticed Cole and Alex's grinning expressions.

"Are you actually enjoying this," she said within each pant and breath.

Alex gave Claire a glance from within his hood, "Yea, my blood's absolutely boiling"

"Sorry Claire," Cole added, "We just haven't had the chance to fight anything so seriously."

Claire just shook her head turning her gaze back to the Vermaak soldier, "This monster is a force to be reckoned with. Cole, you've fought him before?"

"I've fought Vermaak freaks but he's nothing like them at all. Most of them would have used their ice powers by now, not mentioning the fact that not insane, not using guns, and not getting hurt at all."

"So what," Alex questioned, "Is he some new version then?"

"I don't know," Cole said as he spit towards the ground, "but what I do know is that we're gonna kick his ass."

Claire assumed an aggressive stance, "What's the plan."

"Yea, do tell us your 'genius' plan," Alex said in a snide tone.

"Shut up, Alex"

"Fuck you, Cole"

"WILL YOU TWO PLEASE STOP ARGUING!"

"I beg to freakin differ," the masked man said, "You guys look like the three stooges."

"NO ONE ASKED YOU," the three 'stooges' responded,

The man chuckled as he crossed his arms and the three 'stooges' comically gathered around in a huddle to discuss their plans.

"Alright then," Cole started up, "Claire, I think it's best to tell you that we've been holding back a lot."

Claire nodded her head, "Ok, go on?"

"I've got a bunch of abilities related to electrical energy and magnetic manipulation, oh and ice."

"I can turn my arm into weapons and eat people," Alex spoke in a bored tone, "Yay,"

Claire failed to understand half of the terms that Cole had used and she looked at Alex disgusted, "That's all great and wonderful you two but, Cole, didn't you have a plan?" Claire said annoyed.

"Yea, I'm getting to that," Cole snapped, "Anyways I got something called a megawatt hammer and it hits hard and it hits fast. I'm going open up with a couple shots to distract him while you two get in. Alex is going to get up in his face with his claws while you go and stab the asshole in the face."

Claire and Alex looked at each other in agreement, but Claire spoke up.

"I think this can work, but what will happen when we're starting to fight him up close?"

"I'll try to get some shots in. Don't worry about getting hit,"

"Ok, then," Alex said, "Let's get to work!"

Claire and Alex burst out from the huddle towards the masked man as Cole rapidly fired his hammers. The large flying bolts of energy flew towards the man, but he dashed away from them only for him to meet Alex's fast claws. The two danced around each other, Alex sending claw slashes while another man sending swift kicks and punches each time Alex came forward.

It was at that moment that the hammers, the ones first fired by Cole, had exploded on a nearby wall. The blast sent up air and distracted the masked man. Alex, on the other hand, had experienced with bullets, tank shots, and rocket launchers to be affected.

As the masked man was distracted, Alex rushed towards the masked figure, in an attempt to stab him in the gut. To Alex's surprise, the Vermaak soldier twisted, dodging the attack, and then he grabbed the virus' arm. In another surprise the man kicked Alex to the ground and started to break his left arm.

Alex struggled in frustration as his arm crackled more and more until he felt the flesh start to rip off. Shock over took him but almost immediately after the first loud crack, Claire finally made her move. In a mad dash to the man, she got up close to the man and sent the blade through the man's face resulting in a bloody and disgusting noise.

However, to all their shock the man retaliated against the Claymore by removing her blade and punching her in the face. Cole, Alex, and Claire again rebounded towards the masked figure until they felt something bizarre. They stopped in their tracks feeling surprised by how strange the air felt around them.

"What the hell are you doing?" Cole demanded. His eyes narrowed as he felt unease creep over him

"Again with the assuming," the masked figure responded

Alex quirked an eyebrow, "What?"

"You're first mistake was to assume that I came from the same Vermaak 88 that came from your world." He paused slightly letting the information sink in. Claire gave a look of genuine surprise as she heard this.

'_Another world? What's he talking about_'

Alex and Cole looked at the Vermaak soldier shocked themselves. The soldier knew what had happened . . . and knew why they had been taken from their world. Now they would have tried to question the man, but that all changed when the air started to feel volatile.

The air thickened into a form of heated death as the cool breeze transformed into a burning ember. Fire gathered around the figure as a embroiled fury lashed out towards them in the form of violent heat.

"Your second mistake was . . . **_to assume I had Ice Powers_**"

His body flared in a blazing heat as he disappeared as a puff of smoke only to reappear. His arm shot out forward piercing Claire's stomach and going through completely. Cole looked at the man in shock.

"CLAIRE" he roared as he pulled his amp. The man gave a dark chuckle as he threw Claire's body towards the wall. Her body slumped as the open hole bled.

Cole swung his amp violently and randomly at the man but he felt the power of fire blast him in the chest as he was sent flying.

Alex ran forward attempting to slice him . . . only to be stopped by two of the man's fingers. Now it was Alex's turn to be paralyzed.

"That's right." Suddenly the man kicked Alex while holding on to the blade arm, tearing it off, "You should be afraid."

Cole coughed as he lay on the ground. The man continued to walk slowly inching ever so closely. Sweat dripped from his brow as the man came up to him. The mask stared back at him giving him a feeling of absolute dread and death. What Cole did not expect, was the man to outright ignore him and walk right past him.

"HEY," Cole shouted with his amp out, "the hell are you going."

"Your test is gonna be here in twelve hours, so I suggest that you prepare."

Cole shook himself out of shock only to feel the flash of surprise, "What?"

"My only objective was to make sure that you stay here alive," the man said as he walked, "You two have got a test to take."

Cole could only stare in bloody anger, "What was the damn point then," he growled, "Why the hell did you have to do all this" Cole spat out.

"We knew you would investigate Yoma related deaths," he responded, "So I acted as a Yoma would do."

Cole paused as he looked at the man, "Why . .*cough* *Cough* . . . are you leaving us though."

"Oh, we're not trying to catch you. Just study you. Besides, it's too late to stop the test."

Alex grumbled as he got off the ground, his arm now fully healed up, "And what if we just leave."

"Then this town gets obliterated." He responded, "the same thing will happen if you fail your test."

Alex stood up to fight back but he found himself stopped by Cole.

"So then, who the hell are you?"

The figure stopped for a second before turning his head, "I'm the secret that you want Cole Macgrath," He turned away, "I am the despair of souls everywhere and the doom of all non-conduits."

Cole dripped in cold sweat, "No . . . there's no fucking way that possible. I killed you. I FUCKING KILLED YOU."

"Heh heh heh," The man responded, "That's right Macgrath, I'm . . . **_THE BEAST_**"

And with a puff of smoke, his body disappeared leaving the two men to stare into empty space. A groan from Claire shook Cole out of his thoughts, however.

Cole looked over towards her stomach wound and found that it had started to heal, but, even with that, the wound seemed still bleed. Vains around her neck and face started to bulge out. Cole couldn't help but freak out.

"Shit," Cole cursed under his breath, "The hell's happening"

"It's the Yoma part of her trying to heal her," Alex responded in a studious tone, "It's not doing so good and right now she's having a hard time fighting off the Yoma part of her."

"It's trying to take over her?"

"No, she's just trying to keep her Yoki at a manageable level while trying to heal herself. There is the possibility that she could die."

Cole shook his head, "Ok then, I'm gonna help her" Cole reached down but Alex grabbed his hand.

"I really wouldn't do that if I were you"

"What? Why?"

Alex sighed, "Right now she's using all the willpower she can to prevent herself from turning"

"How is that god damn related to my powers"

"Your powers stimulate the senses. When Claymores are controlling their Yoki they're trying to fight against feelings of euphoria and ecstasy. If you try to heal her, you could send her over the edge."

"So what the hell are you saying," Cole snarled as he stood up, "Are just telling me to wait for to die? The fuck kind of an answer is that."

Alex stayed silent for a bit as Cole just glared at him. ". . . If you really wanna help her, the most we can do is make it comfortable for her. Preventing anyone from disturbing her, getting her a nice bed and patching her wounds up would be the way to go. Other than that, we can't do much."

Cole faced away from the viral humanoid, walking around. His hands were over his face as though he had a headache. "Why does this keep fucking happening!"

Alex immediately started getting feelings of Déjà Vu, "Cole, It's not your fault."

"God, I should have just gone all out from the start or just shot the shit out of him. The hell was I thinking."

"You WERE thinking straight Cole. Going all out would have just destroyed the building and hurt us even more. Just stop beating yourself up over this. Besides . . ." Alex pointed at Claire's breathing body, "she needs help."

Cole just looked down in shame. His eyes grew cold and distant as he started to remember. Memories that haunted him again.

Never again . . . he had promised this to himself

Never again . . . he had promised this for Trish

Never again . . . he had promised this to be strong

But it had happened again.

He was pathetic, weak, and, worst of all . . .

A liar

. . .

. . .

Wasn't he?

* * *

~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~

_"Cole?" Trish said as she started to die in his arms. He had revived her after she had fallen from that fateful building on that fateful day. Cole could feel the pain in her body and felt life slowly drain away._

_He could imagine the broken bones the cut into her body, he could feel the sadness in her mind._

_Or was it just his own sadness?_

_"Cole?"_

_"Don't talk Trish," Cole tried to assure her, "It's gonna be alright Trish, we're gonna get you outta here."_

_"Cole, I'm a doctor." She finally said, "I'm not stupid. I know I'm going to die."_

_"Don't say that Trish. Don't give up."_

_"I'm not giving up. . . I'm just accepting reality,"_

_"Why?" He pleaded, "Why do you have to go? Just when I could see you smile. Just when I could damn see that you were proud of me."_

_"Cole," Trish had repeated, "I always had a feeling that you were doing this hero stuff for me."_

_"What?"_

_"I knew you were just trying to impress me and get me back,"_

_"Trish, I-I . . ."_

_"But I'm proud of what you've done."_

_Cole held her and looked into her dying eyes._

_"Even though you did all this for me," she said, "You went and did the right thing in the end."_

_Cole smiled, "You taught me well Trish."_

_"Yea, I know . . . 'the needs . . . of . . . the many. . .'"_

_"Outweigh the needs of the few"_

_Trish smiled, "Y. . .e . . .s . . . and . . . Cole."_

_"Yea?"_

_"Don't . . . blame . . . yourself,"_

_Those were the last words she ever spoke to him._

* * *

**And thus this chapter ends**

**HOW WAS THE FIGHT GUYS?**

**Also, any guesses on what the test is gonna be. Leave a review and, if you guys can guess, I'll totally let you guys add an OC to the next arc.**

**Anyways keep Reading and Reviewing and All that jazz**


	14. The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 8

Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords

**Chapter 13**

**The Holy City of Rabona Arc part 8**

Disclaimer: I don't own inFamous, Prototype, and Claymore

**FINALLY Apoclyptian Scribe**

**Sheesh where have you been**

**A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update**

**But basically I was trying to write out a new story called What the Sith! It's a self-insert story that's set in the SWTOR universe and the story seems to be turning out well. Please help support it :D**

**BTW: I also closed down the Zerglings Come in Pairs story because, well, it was an impossible sceneario to write. Though I am planning something else and you can actually see the cover page I'm drawing up for the story on my deviant art. Check out the link in my profile.**

**As for this story. I was kinda sad that you guys didn't really try to guess what would happen with the "Test".**

**Oh well. Let's get it started**

* * *

Several tense hours passed as the Cole and Alex managed to get her up into Father Vincent's study. The priest and Alex both managed to bandage the Claymore's wounds while Cole paced outside the study with Denra. Denra watched the Conduit's expression as uneasiness swept over the man's face. This worried the little priest.

"Mr. Cole?" Denra questioned. Cole flinched and looked back at Denra as though he had been in a trance.

"Uh, yea . . . Denra?"

He looked at Cole worried, "Are you ok? What happened in the Cathedral?"

Cole shook his head and gave a yawn, "*Ahhhh* It's nothing Denra. Just . . . go t*ahhhhhhh* sleep,"

"Um, I just woke up. It's five in the morning."

"Oh, . . . ok." Cole said as he looked off in the distance. His mind was anywhere but there. Thoughts flowed through his head in a flood of madness. The appearance of the Vermaak 88 ice head had been crazy enough, but for the operative to be the beast . . .

'_No_,' he thought, '_John White's supposed to be dead. Every conduit on Earth was supposed to die. Kuo, Nix, and I felt it—_'

He stopped. The RFI was supposed to kill him, but it didn't so . . . it could work?

_'Wait_,' Cole thought as he stopped himself, '_Alex didn't get transported by the RFI . . . No. It still doesn't mean anything. For all I know, Kuo could still be alive._'

But some things didn't add up. Why had John gone through the trouble to contact him? How did John get Vermaak 88 on his side? What did he mean by "his world?" Why did he need to test him? How was the Beast a part of Vermaak 88?

Nothing made sense and there were far too many variables.

_I'm the secret that you want Cole Macgrath_

He shuddered. What did the Beast even mean by that?

'_Fuck, so much shit to think about_,' he thought as he violently scratched his head. He kind of missed New Marais, heck, even Empire City at this point. At least back then, there was always something to keep his mind off of the confusing crap that had been going on. Hero business always helped did help him feel better. . . and then he started to get back to Trish.

'_Don't blame myself_,' he pondered scoffing, "Sorry Trish, maybe you didn't see the real me."

"Trish didn't see what?"

Cole stepped back from the Virus, not realizing what he had inadvertently said out loud. "Crap, sorry. I'm just . . . just a bit down."

Alex shook his head, "Well stop that crap, you're the damn hero out of the both of us. I'm the only one allowed to sulk around here."

He nodded, "Yea, yea, I know." Alex frowned. Cole wasn't fighting back at all.

"Look," Alex firmly stated, "if you're gonna sulk do it later, we got a test to take."

Cole gave another little nod and headed inside the study. Alex looked at the Conduit in disbelief, stunned that the once lively and ass-kicking Cole had fallen to such a state.

'_But then again, the bigger they are the harder they fall._'

Alex didn't know what to do. He could talk to Cole and try to help get him out of his rut, but Alex wasn't that type of guy. The virus gritted his teeth, cursing whatever gods that were watching him. These reversed roles were going to get the best of him.

'_Fuck it,_' Alex finally conceded, '_I'm no good at this crap,_'

As they walked in, the old bald priest Father Vincent turned showing his worn down eyes. When Father Vincent looked at the two men, he noticed Cole's tired expression. While Alex's biology eliminated his need for sleep, Cole worked a little differently. Cole's powers usually put a lot of stress on the already volatile physical make-up and sleeping would help heal over the damage. Cole had not been sleeping for a while and even Father Vincent had been sleeping before he treated Claire.

"Um, Cole was it?" Father Vincent asked, the conduit looked back with the contemplation.

"Hmm?"

"Yes, um do you require sleep?"

"He shook his head, no . . . no need, *Yawwwn* I'm good."

Alex moved in stopping the priest, "Just let him go, besides we gotta a city to save."

"Y-yes," the Father said, "I guess so,"

"Alright, first order of business," Cole grunted out, "we gotta get everyone outta the city."

"and how are we gonna do that," said Alex as Cole turned to Father Vincent.

"Well . . . I'm just hoping that Father Vincent could get us to . . *yaaaawn* t-the . . guys in the top you know."

"Um . . . yes," The Father said as he moved his gaze away from the drowsy conduit "I think he speaks of the church heads. They have general control of the city."

Alex nodded, "K' you think you can get . . . me," he started to whisper as he noticed Cole started to doze, "a meeting with them?"

"Yes," he whispered in response, "but we will wait till after the morning service. That is when the clergy gathers into the meeting room."

"Good, then let's get to it," Alex said as the two left the room. Off in the corner, Cole had dozed off with a blanket, courtesy from Denra.

* * *

After a number of hours later, the clergy finished their morning service and proceeded into the meeting room. The halls of stone seemed exceptionally chilly that morning as they moved through, but it was mostly negligible compared to the real problem that had been haunting the priests. The previous night's guards had all been taken out by two men. The first was described to have frozen a multitude of men and shot out strange lights from his hands. The second man completely over powered the guards with super human strength.

"First mysterious deaths and now witches," said one Father Pario, "What is our holy city coming to now,"

Father Serene, an older bald priest, looked at Father Pario with skepticism. "Perhaps, they have stretched their accounts."

"From what my friend? I can't see anyone being able to stretch freezing people in place as well as strange lights. Its witchcraft I tell you."

"Calm down Father Pario," said a firm voice. The two men turned to face another priest, this one older than the both of them.

"Ah, Father Rodo," the bald priest exclaimed.

"Fathere Serene, Father Pario." He replied, "So you've heard of the rumors?"

The two men looked at each other, "Yes?" Father Pario said suspiciously.

"Keep them in mind when we go into our meeting."

The two nodded as they when through the final corridor that led to the room. Once inside the priests found themselves surrounded on all sides by guards. The sight was a bit nerve wracking but understandable.

"This must be because of last night's incident," Father Serene commented.

"I still don't see how this would help though. Didn't they say that two of them took out almost thirty of them?"

Father Serene shrugged, "I suppose it's just in case."

Quickly the two made it toward the large table and thus they sat. The table was a large, intricately designed wooden piece of furniture that extended out to accommodate the rest of the priests. As soon as they sat the other priests followed as well with the head Bishop of the church situated on the end of the seats.

The room was quiet for a second as Bishop Kamuri led them into prayer to unease the many men. Then, their meeting began.

"My brothers, we come together in a time of great confusion and sadness. Last night, one of our sisters died within our very halls yet again."

The other priests whispered to each other, many speaking of the two strangers that made themselves known, "Yes, we have all heard the rumors of the two men and I am somewhat alarmed to say that these rumors are, in fact, true."

More whispers echoed through the room as the old bishop struggled to keep the priests quiet, "There is no need to be alarmed. We are now taking the precau—"

Just then a loud *thud* rumbled through the hall as shouting came from the other room.

"STOP, What are you do— Ahhgg"

"Hold, yield, anyone Stop hi— Rawaaa"

With another crash the priests all stood to face the man at the door. The hood obscured his eyes from priests but they could already tell he had the look of a predator.

"Hello," Alex said with a smirk

"Y-y-yoma!" said one priest freaking the others out of their stupor and their seats.

"Um, no" but before he could explain further, the ten guards in the room lashed out with their spears impaling him. To their shock, the man just gave an annoyed look and moved forward into the shaft of the spear.

"Move or I'll stab in the face . . . now."

The men backed off, trying to avoid the now full-of-spears human weapon. The clergy shook in fear as the virus walked up to the old priests and rolled his eyes.

"Now then, we got some business to take care of here."

"Business?" said another priest,

The virus smirked, "Yea, I got something I gotta do for a friend. Hey Father Vincent, you can vouch for me."

The others turned to the old man, "You've consorted with this monster!"

"Brothers, listen," he said as he tried to calm the clergy, "I originally . . . gained their help along with the help of a Claymore to get rid of the suspected Yoma that had been attacking our church members, but the situation has become far worse than what we have thought."

The other members whispered, wondering what he was talking about. Many spoke of how he had consorted with witches, but one voice stood out, out of all of them

"Father Vincent," said the Bishop. The men stared at the old wizened bishop and even forced Alex to focus on him, "I have watched you ever since you started to work together with our brothers and sisters in these holy halls. Do you believe that we are in danger, that we do require the aid of this man?"

He nodded, "Yes, and from their accounts as well as the wounds that the Claymore sustained, the entire city may be in danger."

The priest stroke his beard and gave a faint smile, "Then we shall let this being in front of us speak"

Alex looked at the bishop impressed, "Well damn, I thought this would have been a bit harder than this." He shrugged, "Ah well, let's get to it."

Alex moved himself closer to table as the clergy found their seats again. The virus moved around the table as if he stalked his prey and his voice startled some of the members as he began, "About twelve hours ago, I and my two other associates had attempted to get into the church to search for the suspected Yoma. What we instead found . . . was something else."

He paused, letting the information sink in, "What we found was a soldier from faction known as Vermaak 88 and they apparently planned on my appearance in the city as well as my friend's. He deliberately set up a scenario that imitated a Yoma attack in this city to draw us out."

"But why would he do that?" said the Father Serene clearly intrigued.

"He wanted to give us a test or something. I don't know what's his problem and his deal with Cole, but, in all seriousness, he basically told us that if we failed or didn't do the test, our test would kill everyone in the city."

The words chilled them to the bone and only the Bishop could hope to speak up, "So what do you suggest we do then?"

Alex shrugged, "Well, we both thought at first the best thing would be to evacuate the city, but that would take way too much time and resources. Not to mention the fact that there could be Yoma traveling around your city in search of prey. What I thought up of, was a bit more reasonable. I need you guys to do a total city wide lockdown and have EVERYONE stay inside a building."

The clergy murmured in agreement, a lockdown was quite easy anyways. "Yes, if also said that the Yoma were going to commence in a large scale assault that could easily drive people inside."

"So are we good then?"

"Perhaps," the bishop said he thought to himself, "what happened to your friend then and the Claymore,"

"The Claymore is currently recovering from her wounds and Cole is sleeping, he's gonna need it."

He nodded, "Once you have finished your task, do you promise to leave our city and take the Claymore out as well?"

"I don't see why not?" he said shrugging, "We're not really motivated to stay here anyways."

"Good then, let's get Captain Ganasu. We have a City to defend."

* * *

**Sorry for the really short chapter**

**I think with whats happening now, I am going to put this story on hiatus until December 1****st****.**

**What I'm trying to do is start up my webcomic "Squad Seven Chronicles."**

**I'll post a link once I get the story started, sorry for the wait.**


	15. A Change of Plans

Change of plans

because so many people wanted this story to stay

I'm doing a rewrite

What I am fixing:

1. Alex and Cole are friends WAY too quick

2. Cole and his really cheesy HEROES ARE AWESOME OMG speech

3. Alex's obsession over being a hero

4. Alex's attitude towards Cole

5. Alex picks up on things way too quickly

6. Having useless side characters

7. Extending descriptions and making scenes more cinematic

What I am keeping

1. Cole and Claire's romance

2. Alex's distrust for the organization

3. Cole and Alex's camaraderie


	16. The Start of Something Epic

**Fate is a fickle thing as are the men within them**

**Some men force their fate watching as they themselves turn into unimaginable shapes**

**Some men battle their fate only to watch themselves burned in its wrath**

**But those that accept their destiny go beyond what they think possible**

**And perhaps more**

* * *

**Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords**

An Infamous and Prototype crossover set in the Claymore Universe

Prologue

* * *

In the tales of old, it could be said that the aspect of fire represented both the proud heritage and the vilified evils of humanity. Fire gave mankind the strength to grow beyond their infantile mortal coils to transcend their physical limitations.

But here, in New Marais, the only aspect of fire that could be seen here was its penchant for absolute devastation. The city could do nothing but watch as more and more of itself propagated the very fire that consumed its very existence. The sky was filled with ashy brimstone and dense smog turning the once blue sky into a sickening orange. The citizens, however, were far more occupied with something else.

Out in the streets, the sounds of explosions and the ominous bellows flushed the citizens out of their homes. Off in the distance, the Beast moved ever closer towards the Cole Macgrath's position atop St. Ignatius. The Beast was a gargantuan human figure made of fiery ash and darkened stone that stood taller than even the Cathedral in New Marais. With every footstep, shockwaves echoed out into the streets and sent up blasts of air taking with it anything loose enough to fly upward.

Cole was taking the time to catch his breath on top of the St. Ignatius. In front of him, the RFI was charging up for the last time while the looming figure of the beast walked ever closer. As he pulled the RFI out, he felt the energy of device start to empower him, telling him that it was finally ready to fire.

"Zeke," Cole said out loud, "It's fully charged!"

"Go on man," Zeke responded solemnly, ". . . push the button,"

Cole looked down towards the RFI, ready to fire it off, when suddenly the thumps of loud footsteps alerted him to the Beast's presence. Taking a second to glance up, Cole felt himself grow ever more powerful as anger surged through him. The RFI, feeling Cole's anger suddenly gave him energy giving the prime conduit a sense of empowerment.

"No," Cole said shaking his head, "No not just yet,"

With that he ran towards the edge of the roof and let off a wave of energy from his hands that propelled him forward towards the beast. He yelled in anger, all in the hopes that his anger would fuel him further and help him fight the beast. As Cole got close enough, the Beast's residual energies held the conduit aloft as Cole started to fire off large swarms of explosive blasts. The blasts ripped the already damaged being further and caused him to roar. As more shots hit, the beast fell forward. The Beast was finally on its knees.

John White's large body fell as it was wracked with explosions and electrical shockwaves. His body fell into a defeated kneel and as he looked towards Cole, Cole simply looked back at the giant almost to tell off the beast. The tall fiery monster had only been stopped temporarily, but the ferocious beat down that Cole had given gave him a satisfying feeling, the feeling of victory.

As he looked at the beast, Cole Macgrath stood, finally taking out the RFI. The RFI or Ray Field Inhibitor as it was called, was designed to cure the plague that was spreading across the eastern coast and to completely destroy the beast. Of course, there was an added side effect, the real reason why the RFI worked against the beast.

'_So this is it I guess. I'm gonna die._'

When the RFI went off, he would be killed. The first time he tried to fire it, he could barely keep himself up. This time, Cole was determined to use it quickly and end it instantly.

_*COUGH COUGH*_

Cole turned to see Kuo coughing and rushed towards her. He held her in his arms and she cried as she coughed. Kuo had always been the driving force of goodness that Cole had always turned to. In these trying times, however, Kuo had turned to help the beast. She couldn't accept death like Cole could, but Cole could sympathize with the icy woman. Why should they have had to sacrificed their lives? Why should they have been killed off, the ones that did good, and everyone else had to be saved? Kuo couldn't answer this and turned to the beast, but Cole still knew what had to be done.

Kuo only started her journey three weeks ago, when she picked Cole up at Empire City. She thought she could handle what it meant to be a hero . . . not realizing that sacrifices had to be made. Cole, on the other hand, perhaps had the most experience in that field.

As he comforted Kuo, who proceeded to cry in his arms, Cole took the time to think back. He thought back to a time where he didn't worry about sacrifice. He thought back to a time when he wouldn't have to worry about life or death. He even though back to Trish, back to when she told him she loved him, to where she thought he had betrayed her, to when she came back to him, and, finally, to when she died.

Cole knew what it meant to sacrifice.

"It's ok" Cole reassured Kuo.

"It's not ok." Kuo spit back in between her sobs, "You made the right choice. Hell Nix even made the right choice."

Nix had been a fiery hot conduit that always tried to seduce Cole into going at things her way. If there were people that were protesting about Cole, she would always tell him to attack them. If there was someone with a blast core, she would tell him to steal it from them. He would always tell her no and she would always question why they would have to serve the weak and why they had to fight for their pleasure and not her and his own pleasure. He always told her the same thing.

In the end, she understood it and showed her resolve by sacrificing herself to slow the beast for a few precious seconds and in those precious seconds he had been able to get the RFI away from the giant.

". . .I was— I am scared. . ." Kuo continued. Her eyes were red with tears, tears that were now flowing down her face and freezing from her icy cold skin.

"I know" Cole spoke. Kuo looked down ashamed for fighting against Cole.

"Do it," she whimpered

He moved away from her icy body as he stood straight. He spared a look at the kneeling fiery beast's body and shifted his sight back to Kuo. She coughed as he took out the RFI again and prepared himself for the pain.

He felt the energy being drained from his own body. His flesh felt weak as the device beeped in glory. For a moment the world around him felt silent as he let himself go. The moment passed and the energy racked his body as a beam of light flew into the sky. The energy penetrated the atmosphere and was sent out in a wave of energy that reached every conduit in the world killing them.

One by one the corrupted in New Marias dropped dead in the blast's wake. Vermakk 88 agents dropped like flies as the ice caused by their carnage melted with them. The plague went with them as families flocked to their previously thought to be dead members and the sounds of rejoice echoed throughout the city. The sounds of celebrations could be heard throughout the city just for being alive, but one man didn't say a sound.

He ran towards the origin of the blast and found the two dead bodies of the conduits John White and Lucy Kuo. Cole was nowhere to be found. A fear struck him that hit him hard, that his friend would go down as an unsung hero. But here in New Marias, they knew what he had done. The Demon of Empire City had finally become the Patron Saint of New Marias.

However, his story would not end here.

It had only just begun.

* * *

"You're definitely not what I expected," said a hooded figure as the platform he stood on rose up. A small growl aimed toward him answered back and gave a punch that sent him flying upwards.

The punch dazed the figure, leaving him in a light-headed state until he flew into helicopter. The copter exploded in a fiery ball of death, subsequently forcing the other planes and metal flyers around it to explode as well.

As the fires fueled themselves, a creature kept its watchful eye over the burning landscape, looking out for the prey that he had so easily punched away. This creature was a supreme hunter, a twisted visage of a human that stood nearly 10 feet tall with a face that appeared to have been melted away on one side. Overall, the humanoid's muscular figure was disgusting sight to behold, but even it was still far less scary than . . . him.

Within a flash, the monster felt its flesh tear as huge spikes shot out from the ground. The pain of torn flesh quickly subsided as did the spikes when the monster's regeneration kicked in. Muscles and sinew wove themselves together as the monster looked back towards the hooded figure, the real monster.

Alex Mercer they called him usually pairing it up with the words terrorist or bioweapon. To those in Blackwatch, they called him Zeus, their biggest and perhaps the last accident they would have. Alex was, in all intents and purposes, simply a human shaped mass of organic matter that could regenerate, transform, and, the most dangerous trait of all, think. If Alex was there, blood usually followed in his footsteps and to him, this would be the same.

"That hurt . . . you ugly freak," he spit out with a glare. Upon closer inspection, Alex's arms were now clawed hands with sharp blades on each finger. While he only used his claws against large numbers of weaker enemies like human infantry, he still felt satisfied that his spikes had hit their mark and decided to change their form. Fleshy appendages quickly surrounded and spun around his claws as they morphed into large and heavy mounds of flesh. When the Hammerfists finally finished morphing, Alex got down to his knees from the sudden weight change, but quickly got up and smashed the two bulky arms together.

The gesture registered as a challenge aimed directly at the Supreme hunter and, with a roar, the monstrous humanoid gathered his bearings as he prepared himself. Alex looked on with strange fascination, but his expression quickly changed into utter horror as the Supreme hunter opened up with a tendril barrage devastator. Tendrils flew out, skewering everything around the Supreme Hunter, some even managing to reach Alex's position. He dodged the clumsily aimed tendrils as he smirked with a sort of sick glee. As the tendrils pulled back, Alex prepared himself as he gathered most of his biomass into his arm and started to drag it.

A split second later, Alex flung his arm towards the Hunter and smashing it into the ground more. Blood and sweat was pouring from the monstrosity as it roared, but it was quickly silenced by a few more smashes to the face. The hunter retaliated back with a swipe of his arm, but Alex had already backed off with his now Whipfist and sent the bladed tendril flying into the monster's gut. The tore through the monster's stomach area, but quickly regenerated to the weak attack as the monster rushed towards him.

For several minutes, the Supreme Hunter fought a losing battle as he flung powerful, yet uncoordinated attacks that missed. In truth, the large bulky body of the Supreme Hunter could not hope to keep up with Alex's agility and, by the time the monster got to its knees, it regeneration was starting to slow as well as it attacks.

"Well, wasn't that arrogant of you," Alex mocked the hunter's bloody form, "I've already kicked your ass freak so screw off." His right arm changed as the tendrils on this body twisted it into a huge curved blade that could slice the armor off of tanks. As he closed the distance, Alex jumped up from under his neck and sliced the Supreme hunter's head off.

"Grow that back"

He landed, still watching the creature turn into a lump of dead twisting flesh. It gurgled as the blood gushed out from its large open wounds and slumped chest down onto the ground. Alex now had other matters at hand.

He ran towards the lowered deck and went straight towards the nuke. From the looks of it, he still a couple minutes before it detonated. He gave himself a small smirk; the Supreme Hunter had barely given him any trouble. He grabbed the nuke as gently as any superhuman monster could and placed it on the platform. When it reached the top, he was greeted by several soldiers foolishly pointing guns at him.

"You know that I got a nuke right here?" Alex smugly stated.

The soldiers looked at each other as held their guns and their ground.

"I suggest you get out of my way before I have to make you move," he said as he hefted the large nuke. Upon hearing this all of the soldiers bolted as fast as they could.

Nukes tended to usually do that.

Alex calmly walked towards one of the helicopters and quickly got to work. After attaching the nuke to the helicopter, he started up the engines. The soldiers watched in awe how fast he had worked and by then, most had started to evacuate the aircraft carrier. After about a minute of working, the craft lifted itself up into the air and, when it finally rose high enough, the nuke swung along under the Copter's belly.

As the virus flew over the darkened water, thoughts ran around through his head, all of which gave him an uneasy feeling. The viral outbreak that made him was started by the real Alex Mercer. Alex was a sociopath willing to infect an entire city for survival. Of course, what eventually happened led to his creation. The old Alex died at Penn Station and was reborn as Zeus.

As him

So what was he? Was he the sociopathic Alex Mercer just waiting to show his true colors over time . . . or was he something else?

There some certainties, however. He knew what he could do, what he could achieve. He was a virus that ate people. There was no doubt about it. More and more as the thought the various faces of those he consumed welled up inside him and started to spill out. He could feel their fears, the wants, their loved ones, and their deaths, but that wasn't what disturbed him. What really bothered the virus was again, who he was as a person.

Could he really go back to humanity at this point?

Thoughts like these and more slowly swirled to a stop as he finally found the helicopter at a safe distance away from the city. With the press of a button, Alex detached the bomb, sending it into the water, and the copter turned away as the bomb sunk into the depths. He pushed down on the helicopter's controls, accelerating it away from the soon to be explosion.

And then, it went off.

Most humans would have panicked in Alex's position, but this wasn't something he hadn't accounted for. In order for the bomb to be at a safe distance from the city, the bomb would have to be placed while he was still in the blast.

And he really didn't care.

"Bring it," he said as the blast tore through the helicopter, burning him alive in a vortex of nuclear energy.

* * *

In a distant twisted realm of absolute darkness, some . . . thing sat on his knees as it looked down.

Its eyes glinted as its mouth morphed into a sadistic grin.

"Finally," he said with a twisted glee, "New toys to play with."

* * *

**Hello all thanks for reading**

**Please Review and stuff and tell me if this has been an improvement or not**

**ALSO, we got forums up for this story so please check it out!**


	17. Rough Landings

_**. . .**_

_**Vi'en Tro Va Ish' Tan**_

_**Death is only the Beginning**_

_**Trie Va' Ish Ta Vion**_

_**And Life shall begin Anew**_

_**. . .**_

* * *

On the distant shores of rolling sand dunes, a woman clad in a white uniform and silver armor stood staring off into the stars as she rested around a fire. The sky was a clear black mass littered with stars that night and it came to be a calming presence for the female warrior. Her nights, like this one, usually involved more . . . red tinges of color and it was a relief to see that her world did not adopt the same red color of the blood that stain the very ground she slaughtered upon.

She lied flat on her back as the crackling fires warmed her body and lit up the surrounding sands. Off in the distance, she could see the desert sands change into a richer earthen soil. The thick forest land seemed like a large contrast compared to the dry dead sand she rested upon. Before she could continue in her thoughts, she noticed movement in the forest and recognized the figure that emerged from its dark shadows.

"Rubel," she said to the tall thin man, "I take it that you have another assignment for me."

The man only responded with a smile to the warrior in front of him, his black hat, sunglasses, and suit hiding most of his features. If there was one word to describe Rubel, it would have to be creepy, but even that didn't encompass the entirety of this enigma.

"As eager as always Claire," he responded keeping his smiling façade, "I found the Yoma you killed back there. So bloodthirsty,"

She didn't respond to his comment, letting the silence answer for her. Rubel gave an uncaring shrug as he continued on speaking.

"And, yes, there was another request. It's nothing big, really, just one Yoma maybe two over at that town down south."

"Then I shall depart tomorrow morning," she said sitting down, her form meditating in a relaxed sitting position. Rubel aimed another smirk in her direction and left.

Once the man in black left, her gaze shot towards the sky, hoping to find some solace in the stars. The sky was quiet that night and the emptiness gave nothing but peaceful clarity.

And then she saw the sky

And two small stars falling towards the earth.

* * *

**Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords **

Chapter 1: Rough Landings

* * *

The clear night sky was a silent black mass littered with stars. Overall, while the humans in Pieta looked up not understanding the true nature of the black sea in the sky, in the back of some, there were those that looked up to see something else. Perhaps it was their religious fervor speaking to their souls or their imagination instilling a sense of awe. Whatever it was, they knew that there was something out there and this night would only help to stir others into this as well.

As said before, the night was fairly calm and empty. Not a cloud in the sky hid Pieta from the gaze of the ever present moon. However, something else had now appeared in the sky.

Two shooting stars swam through the seamless mass of darkness and stars. One star was a mass of blue and few said that they swore that they could hear a whisper of hope in these troubled times. The other falling object was a mass of dark red and some spoke of its dark tidings for the future. To all the men and women watching the small colored blips in the sky, the stars looked like tears from the heavens that fell upon the earth. Those with fervent belief in their gods, took it upon themselves to pray and other simply gave a short glance, showing slight interest and immediately going back to work or getting ready to sleep.

What no one knew, however, was that these two stars were not just simply passing by, no, they were, in fact, falling from the sky and that's what they did. The two colored masses flew down, landing in a clearing of trees and grass. As soon as they reached the ground, the sheer force of their landing eviscerated the grassy field that cushioned their fall. Interestingly, their landing yielded no flames or heat and thus the rest of the forest was left unharmed.

The blue mass of light faded slowly, first losing its glow from a brilliant blue and then quickly forming into a man dressed in a white and light grey shirt with track pants. The blue light flowed from him as he started to get up, groaning as he felt the pain coursing through his body.

"Agghh, damn it," his somewhat gruff voice said noting the pain.

His memories had left him, everything was unclear and painful. Suddenly a shock of electricity reminded Cole of what had transpired before.

'_Wait, I'm supposed to be dead._'

He looked around and took in his environment. He was in a crater that reminded him of the ray sphere blast he was in, only this crater was much smaller. There were trees he could clearly see and wildlife that he could barely hear. This definitely wasn't heaven . . .was it?

Cause if it did, this heaven was absolute shit.

"Where the hell am I?" He grumbled.

The aches were starting to leave him as he walked out of the crater and the soft ground squished with each step. He sent out a Radar pulse, trying to find something or someone that would tell him where he was. For some strange reason, he felt no signals, no forms of electrical machinations of technology scattered about. Granted, he wasn't that surprised, with him being in the forest and all, but something was amiss. Usually when there was no electrical energy that he could find to sustain himself, his vision would feel fuzzy and things would start to confusingly blur around him.

And yet now, the forest environment around him was as clear as the night sky. It confused him and in another vain attempt he sent out another pulse. This time there was a source of energy, but it didn't originate from a technological source. To his surprise, when Cole looked towards the only source of electricity left he only found another crater next to him. This crater glowed dark red and, as he stared at it, Cole could feel a presence start to stir. The glow slowly dissipated as he soon found himself staring at the a glob of flesh.

Cole, instinctively moved closer to the glob of flesh, watching the thing's movements as it undulated forward and back. To the conduit's shock, he could see the thing start to take shape into something and, as it continued, the flesh turned into the figure of a man.

As the man stood up, Cole noticed as the being's skin turned into a partially buttoned-up white shirt, a plain gray hoodie, and a black leather jacket with a red tribal design on his back layer by layer. On his lower body, on the other hand, the legs turned into a plain blue pair of jeans and, on the creature's feet, black shoes morphed themselves over.

The thing about learning to live through nuclear explosions is the fact that no one really expects to survive, so when Alex's consciousness started coming back to his body, he felt shock and pain course through his body. He shouted in reflex as he felt the needles of a thousand burns and the radiation of a nuclear explosion start to violently tear apart his DNA. And then, the feelings vanished as his body's hyper regeneration and adaptability kicked in.

Cole standing on the outer rim of the crater stepped back from the figure as a shout as well as the violent aura of a bestial creature came towards Cole. Almost instantly, he pulled out his amp, not giving a thought to it's unusually light weight. Cole sudden action alerted Alex and soon he jumped out of the crater away from Cole's presence.

The two looked directly at each other, not giving each other an inch of ground as they both gave each other glares. As Alex looked at Cole, Alex found himself staring at the conduit with different vision types. As he observed the man, Alex could only feel surprised as he found himself staring at something he had never seen.

Cole was looking back at him with the exact same idea. Cole had retained his ability to observe a person's body's innards. The beast had given it to him so that he could find those that were infected by the plague that racked New Marias.

"Who the hell are you?" Alex growled.

"I could say the same for you," Cole retorted.

Silence filled the air and tension rose between between the super-powered beings. This time, Cole was the one to make the first move.

"Where the hell are your organs?"

Alex gaze narrowed as his mouth curled into a snarl, "What?"

"I can see through your body a bit. I'm not a doctor, but I can tell that you aren't human, are you," Cole clarified.

"Well, genius, of course I'm not human. I'm god damn Alex Mercer," Alex responded, expecting a reaction. To the virus' surprise, all he received was a raised eyebrow and a look of confusion.

"Um, ok, how the hell's your name related to anything."

Alex jumped towards Cole and the Conduit soon found himself face to face with the hooded virus.

"It's got everything to do with me, but last I checked it was your damn turn. The fuck are you?"

Cole stood firm where he was unyielding. "I'm Cole Macgrath, asshole and I don't take kindly to whiny bitches,"

Alex's arms sliced the air as he came down upon the conduit, but, to Alex and Cole's surprise, the conduit dodged the now-formed claw. Cole found himself staring at the virus, but quickly gathered his bearings.

"Well, that's new," Cole said as he charged up a bolt of electricity.

Cole put his right arm up in front of himself and Alex soon found lines of electricity flowing from the conduit's arms. His arms lite up blue from the electrical light show and shots fired, quickly flying towards Alex. He barely moved around the blobs of high powered energy and as the shots hit a nearby tree, leaving scorch marks.

"Yea, no kidding freak," Alex snapped, quickly changing his hands back to normal.

Cole gave a smirk putting away his amp and his arm, "Really don't think you got space to call me freak, . . . asshole."

Alex snickered, "Alright then, I'm gonna assume that you don't know me or anything that's happened at New York,"

"And I'm going to guess your not from New Marais,"

They simply stood giving each other cautious looks. One couldn't be too careful when staring down a fellow superhuman.

"So," Cole finally said breaking the silence, "How'd you get your powers,"

"I died,"

"Oh, that sounds nice,"

Alex shrugged, "And you?"

"I almost died, in an explosion of energy,"

"Ahh,"

"Uh huh, see what I did there," Cole said with a smirk.

"Yea," Alex responded, finally taking the time to check his surroundings, "Where the hell are we,"

Cole walked towards a tree, still keeping an eye on Alex, "You tell me. Last I checked, I was supposed to still be back in New Marais, sacrificing my life to save people from an all consuming disease,"

"Hmm," Alex said, noticing their similarities, "Same here, I was sacrificing my life to stop a nuke from going off in New York,"

"And now we're here,"

"Yup,"

Alex and Cole just stared down towards their craters. Everything was so confusing and it wasn't just the fact that had no idea where they were. Cole remembered how his body was ripped atom by atom as the core of his soul tore itself from the inside out. Alex pondered fondly feeling the fury of the nuclear explosion kill him. Both Alex and Cole knew they should have died.

So why weren't they dead.

Cole gave a smile, "Well, if I have no idea where we are and you have no idea where we are, then we should do something about it."

Alex sighed, "Ok then, what are you suggesting then,"

"Well," Cole said scratching his head, "We could-"

Cole stopped suddenly sending out a radar pulse while Alex giving the man a glance. Quickly realizing what was happening, Alex himself scoured his surroundings with his heat vision. The two men got into a defensive stance with Cole arming himself with his amp while Alex changed his arm's form with a large curved blade.

The tree shifted as leaves fell and silent footsteps moved around in the undergrowth.

Alex spoke out first to the hunters.

"Get your ass out here now."

The leaves shifted as the voice traveled through the air.

"Don't bother hiding. We know you're there," Cole shouted

Soon the hiding figures in the bushes and trees leaped out revealing themselves as disturbing humanoid nude monsters. While not as disgusting as the infected or mutated as the corrupted, the monsters' faces made the virus and the conduit cringe in disgust. The monsters looked fairly human-like, but the features looked like perverted

"On second thought, you guys can go back." Cole remarked

"Shut up," Alex said as he readied himself for a fight, to which Cole gave a look of annoyance.

"Excuse me?"

"You're not deaf. You've heard what I said,"

"Really don't think this is the time for negative feedback, bud,"

Alex finally turned, fed up with Cole's comments, "Just shut up and focus,"

The creatures snarled and one of them, to the surprise of the two individuals, spoke up.

"**Shut up humans. We've been dying to eat some guts and we don't want talkative prey.**"

Alex and Cole gave the creatures a look, but it was Alex that ultimately answered for the two, "You talk . . . huh, You'll make a nice meal."

"Dude," Cole said giving the virus a weird look, "gross,"

All eight creatures rushed towards them as the two combatants moved up to face their opponents. Cole found himself dodging extending fingers as he reached his first monster to bash. The amp swung down and hit the creature square in the head, sending it face first to the ground. Before it could hit the ground, the creature's head found itself in contact with the amp again. The amp lopped its head off easily as Cole found himself in surprise.

"Damn, did I do that?"

He turned and saw that Alex had quickly dispatched with one of the creatures as well, but in a much bloodier fashion. The claws were obviously built to cut flesh and it certainly proved to be effective as Alex ripped through the creature's body like butter. Cole was a bit grossed out but didn't continue his thoughts on the matter, mostly because he was being attacked by the other three on him.

Cole quickly spun to dodge all 30 fingers and dashed towards his next victim. This one had seen the previous attack's effects and so he quickly dodged the blow only to find himself being blasted in the air by a shockwave that hit another one of his fellow monsters. They started to float down slowly when they found themselves both being stuck with glowing orbs. The orbs exploded and blew up the creatures in a shower of guts and gore, which sickened and shocked Cole.

"Holy damn, when the hell did my grenades get that powerful?"

Alex was getting frustrated with his three as these creatures started to learn to avoid the extremely sharp claws. However, they weren't as fast as he was. As the one of the turned to dodge his attack, the claw changed into a blade and soon Alex shifted his momentum to slice the body in half. The other two were stunned for a bit and attacked him, hoping to hit his back. All twenty fingers found their mark and they shouted with glee.

"**Ha, ha, that's right human. You're all so pitiful to think that you can stop—**"

It never got to finish that sentence as it found itself with a face full of a hammerfist as well as body full and stomach full of said fist. The creature was smashed into a bloody pool of flesh and guts with only its extended fingers remaining. The last one turned to run hoping to get away from the monstrosity that totally butchered his companions, but found himself being tugged by Alex's whipfist.

"You all talk way too much,"

Alex smashed the creature into the ground as he started to punch it brutally to death. The creature screeched in pain only to be consumed by Alex and replaced with Alex's own shout of pain. He fell to his knees as memories traveled through his brain.

Cole heard Alex and shouted back to him. "Hey, what wrong. You ok?"

"Y**ou need to focus on your opponent stupid human rather than your dead friend.**"

The creature stabbed its hand into the ground as Cole turned around. He felt the presence of the fingers rushing towards him but it was too late. The five fingers pierced his heart, guts, and stomach. He cringed a bit for the initial pain and then he gave a confused look.

There was no pain and he didn't even bleed.

"Hmm," he said with a smirk, "thought dying would be a bit more painful than that,"

The creature was as shocked as he was both figuratively, and literally, as the electricity from Cole's core flowed through his fingers and shocking the monster completely. The creature screamed as the electric energy fried him from the inside out. The body disintegrated into ash and Cole looked at his wounds. The five holes that were on him seemed to be spark with electricity. Slowly but surely they closed up and he found himself stuttering.

"I guess we're far more alike than I thought," said the sly voice of Alex Mercer

Cole found himself staring at the viral biomass. "What?"

"I am a virus that is made up of a large biomass of flesh that can change shape as well as regenerate. You, on the other hand, are like me made of electricity."

"How am I like a large mound of flesh that changes into weird crap?"

"You're not flesh, but you are electricity."

Cole shifted his gaze to his hands. His hands sparked and, as he looked closely, the sparks seemed to be coming from his own essence. "Oh, well that's convenient"

"Yea, I was looking at you and saw that your body wasn't made of anything."

"Wait, how am I even alive?"

Alex shrugged, "Well, human impulse is just a bunch of electricity anyways. You must somehow be grounded in a physical form that can shift into an electrical form." Alex stared closer at him as he continued. "I also think that you might be constantly generating electricity, have any idea why."

Cole crossed his arms as he looked towards the crater. Suddenly, he felt that his mind had a revelation. "WAIT, the RFI!"

"What?"

"Don't worry about it. It the thing I used before I got transported here. I had to charge it by putting a bunch of energy into it from me. It must have gotten fused inside me."

"Yea, you must have some sort of energetic reaction that'll fuel you forever."

"So, I'm invincible now. Sweet, Zeke would have killed to see me now."

"No, not invincible." Cole looked back at Alex confused as Alex continued. "there's a chance where you might just scatter in a billion directions as electrical energy if your form gets disrupted enough. So no, you're not invincible."

Cole shrugged, "Ah well, it's not like anyone's going to be able to do that much to me. Besides, I fell like I've gotten a major boost in my powers." Cole paused, pondering to himself, "Wait, how do you know all this?"

"I guessed it."

". . . you guessed it?"

"Yea, it does help to have a couple hundred scientists in your head."

"Come again," Cole remarked. "You have voices in your head? You sure you aren't crazy."

Alex sighed, feeling somewhat annoyed that he had to explain so much about him, "When I consume something, I take their neurological impulses along with their general body mass."

"Oh," Cole said in relief. Perhaps, this could work, "So I'm gonna assume you got something from those things we just fought."

Alex smirked, "Oh yea and you'll never believe what I got?"

Cole shook his head, he was bad with stuff like this, "Beats me. What cha' find?"

Alex's smile widened, "Well, looks like were not in Kansas anymore Toto and or anywhere else on Earth for that matter."

* * *

**Hello Everyone again**

**SORRY FOR THE REALLY LONG UPDATE**

**I'm still writing in my other stories and I had some trouble with rewriting the chapter. I didn't really like how the relationship worked so I just made a few twitches here and there.**

**Anyways thanks for reading and remember to check out my other stories as well as the forum posts.**


	18. Yoma Hunters

As the first lights from the morning sun crept over the dusty roads of the town, none could feel the imminent horror that awaited them.

Those that woke earlier had gone off and started their early routines and those that had come to at dawn were just getting ready to start off their morning.

And then they came out into the streets and found a half eaten corpse in the middle of the road.

Children were hushed back into their homes as a crowed formed around the boy's dead form. The frail body had been left the same way it was found, in a semi fetal position with his stomach ravaged.

"This is the sixth one" said a smaller man cringing from the smell of blood.

Another man couldn't help but comment, "Darn it! The last one was just three days ago."

"What'll we do? At this rate . . ."

"There's no doubt about it. A Yoma is in the village."

"If we don't do something about it, we're finished."

"We gotta tell the Chief."

The villagers were anxious and weary and soon the crowd started to move to the chief's home. The streets were now quiet now and the only person left to notice two men entering the village was the dead one that laid sprawled in his own blood.

They looked around noting that lack of commotion around the body and quietly sneaked closer to the cadaver. One of them circled around, his sharp eyes detailing the rips along the ribs.

"Look there, torn straight out from front. He never stood a chance," Alex droned almost professionally. He was unfazed by the body, but that couldn't be said for his traveling companion.

"God damn," Cole grimaced, "That's one nasty piece of work,"

"I've seen worse . . . and done worse," Alex commented, but Cole shook it off.

"Is it them?"

"Seems likely, seem like a Yoma,"

"Tastes like it too, but its a breakfast cereal"

"What?"

"Its nothing,"

* * *

**Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords**

Chapter 2: Yoma Hunters

* * *

Inside the main living room of the chief's humble home, a crowd -composed mostly of men- looked down at the sitting old chief. Their shouts were starting to hit him harder and harder.

"What'll we do chief? That's the sixth one!"

"If we just sit here and wait, We'll all be butchered!"

"They eat your guts while you're still alive!"

A sudden thump silenced the crowd as a young man slammed his hand on the table and snapped back at them.

"So what are we supposed to do?! Once they take human form, it's practically impossible for us to spot them! Are you saying we should just round up suspicious looking characters!?"

The crowd was just about to fire back when chief's calm voice took them by storm.

"Calm down Zaki," the chief said with a calming chilled tone.

"But chief . . ."

Zaki stopped as he noticed the chief placing a letter on the table. The crowd looked at it questioningly, following Zaki's que.

"We received a reply to our letter," the chief finally said, "It seems they're sending one to our village, A claymore,"

The culmination of gasps and whispers echoed through the crowd as they heard this.

"A . . . A Claymore?"

"Are you serious?"

"You want to hire one of them?"

The chief cleared his throat, holding the crowd at bay once again.

"Yes, we have no choice, they are the only ones who can detect a monster in Human Form. Don't argue with me. I know it will cost us a great deal, but the way things are, the fate of the village is at stake. The sooner we act the better,"

No one from the crowd stirred, the air itself seemed to suffocate everyone. One by one, they all cleared out, not taking an effort to argue with the chief for what had been done was already finished. The claymore would come to their village whether they liked it or not.

"A claymore, eh?"

"They give me the creeps"

"Have you ever seen one?"

"Yeah, once"

As the crowd left the room, those that had been inside failed to notice the two strange individuals next to the door. Once the men and women trickled out into the street and carried on with their lives, both Alex's hooded form and Cole's muscled figure went in, closing the door behind them.

Even once the door clicked closed, the old man didn't even take the time to look up as he was busy trying to book keep for the village's financial future. Hiring a Claymore took a lot from their budget. Granted, while the cut wasn't impossible to work with, it still would hit the village hard. Some would probably have to starve later in the year to save up for the winter.

On that note, the chief moved his gaze out the window. He had seen a bright blue star last night and – hopefully- it was a sign for a change to come. When he moved his gaze to the door, he fell back in his chair, finally recognizing Alex and Cole's presence in his home.

"Gah, I'm sorry for not noticing you two," he said as he pulled himself up.

Cole gave a small smirk as he saw the man's reaction, "Sorry bout that, didn't mean to scare ya."

The old man finally sat back down, pushing his chair forward, "Is there something you two need?"

"Yup, name's Cole Macgrath and the walking ball of sunshine over here is Alex Mercer and we'd like to talk about a little problem you got around here,"

The chief raised an eyebrow, "I'm not sure I follow,"

"The Yoma problem, we're thinking of getting rid of it," Alex mentioned and the old chief stared wide eyed at the two.

"W-what?" he sputtered barely keeping himself still, "Are you from the Organization?"

Cole paused turning his head to Alex who only shrugged in return, "Uh, don't know what you're talkin' about but I think we can get the job done since we're here."

The old man looked at the two, unsure if he was hearing correctly, "So your saying . . . you can kill . . . hunt Yoma,"

"Absolutely," Cole responded.

"How will I be sure you're not just lying. I'm already in enough trying to hire a Claymore."

The name looked to be unfamiliar to both Cole and Alex, but they didn't press the subject, "We'll bring a body and if we fail, well, we'll be dead."

The man slowly blinked still weary, ". . . What are your terms?"

That was Alex's queue to speak, "You give us a room for the night answer some questions for us and the Yoma's gonna be dead before nightfall."

The chief paused, those were very inexpensive terms compared to hiring a Claymore and, now that he thought about it, the Claymore could come to clean up if they failed. If they did succeed, his village would only have to pay the conditional fee for wasting the Claymore's time.

What did he have to lose?

With several nods that grew ever stronger, the chief slowly brought himself out of his chair, "Then you two have got yourselves a deal"

* * *

Upon entering their designated room, Cole leapt onto the bed stretching aching limbs.

"You know Mercer, I still can't believe we're stuck in a backwater place like this."

Alex nodded, prompting the conduit to continue, "I'm kinda surprised we ain't seeing Elves or Orcs, you know."

"Yea, sorta weird. Its straight outta fantasy," Mercer responded sitting down in a chair, "I'm still trying to wrap my head around what I got from that Yoma,"

"Anything new then?"

The virus leaned back, "A bit, you know how that guy mentioned something about Claymores?"

"Uh-huh,"

"Anyways, apparently these Yoma guys can absolutely dominate humans in every way. They got speed, strength, agility, regeneration, and the ability to eat people and take their appearance as well as take their memories. You could say that their built to hunt humans."

"Reminds me of someone I know."

Alex rolled his eyes and continued, "In order for humans to fight back, a group of guys called the 'Organization' created female warriors that could combat them by somehow splicing Yoma DNA into their bodies."

"So you're saying that we're in a world within a medieval time period with monster hunting women," Cole shrugged a bit. "I guess it could be worse,"

Alex silently twiddled his thumbs, "You really think we should be doing this? Putting ourselves in the open like this?"

"Well, the way I see it, if we help enough people, maybe we'll find a way back home,"

"I'm doubt anyone's gonna have a nuke or RFI waiting for us in a medieval setting like this Macgrath."

Cole looked off to the side before snapping his fingers, "That Claymore Organization's got biological engineering, what about them?"

He shook his head, "Any well organized private military is just bad news. Not to mention, they have a monopoly on Yoma hunting."

"And that's where we come in,"

"Our first priority should be finding a way off this rock and getting home, not helping people,"

"If its that irritating for you then I seriously suggest finding that you find your own way and stay outta my face then, got it."

That forced even the viral bioweapon the close his mouth. Cole and Alex's relationship was certainly one that had constantly been on edge as soon as they met. They were lone wolves, men with powers that transcended them into absolute powerhouses of destruction. Both knew what they wanted and they usually got what they wanted.

But Alex backed down. He stood back up walking towards the window still irritated with Cole's overbearing positive attitude. It sickened him to see someone like that. The infected zone in NYC was a bloodbath and only the strong survived. Kill or be killed he said, but, then again, this wasn't NYC or even Earth for that matter.

This was a new environment and he was with a new type of person, one that could be an excellent asset in the future, or a powerful enemy. Granted, Cole didn't seem to be the type to hold grudges or be "evil" or fight him for no reason, but Alex had already put too much faith in people he didn't know.

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Alex whispered as he down at the dirt ridden streets.

Alex was going to watch Cole and, hopefully, make sure the conduit wasn't an enemy. If he was – well he had plenty methods of disposal.

Literally at his fingertips

Cole looked at the hooded man, watching the figure gaze out in a hypnotic trance. Cole didn't like Alex and it was more than just a gut feeling. They both knew that they had widely different methods. Cole shocked people into submission and Alex – *gulp* - literally ate who he didn't like.

As much as he wanted to get rid of Alex, Cole knew that the hooded man was a loose cannon and hard born killer. If he was just left to his own devices, there would be a lot of blood lying around with all the stains left with no traces of a dead corpse.

And of course, both men didn't want to admit it, but they knew that they needed one another to leave. Even if Cole found the technology to get him back home, he doubted that he'd be able to work anything overly complex. Alex was a walking encyclopedia with the minds of almost a hundred scientists. He could work the machine or, heck, maybe even make something.

For Alex, if he got the tech he needed, he'd need a power source. Last he checked, the amount of energy used to transport him was either the amount produced by an RFI or a nuclear explosion, either way, he wouldn't be able to produce as much energy on sticks, stones, and whatever material that the medieval age had. Cole was fused with his energy source, the RFI. All Alex needed to do was get Cole's energy, contain it, and it would be a win-win situation.

"Man," Cole said finally breaking the long silence, "this is comfy for some medieval cot, ya know,"

Alex turned leaning on the window sill, "I'd be surprised if they didn't give us the best. We are killing demonic flesh eating monsters for them,"

Cole shrugged, "Yea, yea. I guess. Man, Zeke would have loved a gig like this,"

"Zeke?"

"He's a friend a mine, close friend. Been through a lot of ups and downs with him and I don't know where I'd be without him." Cole paused as he looked up towards the wooden ceiling. He had a distant stare and calm face.

"Must be nice to know you got someone waiting for you back home,"

"What about you. Got someone you care about?"

". . . Maybe," the words barely seeped through his mouth.

"Nothing to be ashamed of Mercer, we all got people we care about, people we miss,"

It was at that moment when the two men gave themselves to their memories, the images of the past washing over them and glazing their sight.

Alex didn't know what to feel about Dana, but his inner soul missed her. Perhaps it was instinctual or behavioral or parental conditioning. All he remembered was losing Dana and finding her unconscious. The emptyness he felt as he gave her near lifeless body to Dr. Ragland hit him where bullets and missiles could never touch, but what could he do. And now, all he could do was just question to himself over and over again.

Was she alive? Did she know where he was? Would she ever try to find him?

And cry, thinking that he had died?

Cole on the other hand, couldn't help but think of everyone back at New Marais.

Had the RFI succeeded?

Was the plague gone?

Would his friend be safe?

All these questions and more would have to be answered later, however, as soon the open window pulled in the commotion from the crowd that had formed in front of the gate. The two super beings rushed up to look out the window, and would soon wish they hadn't.

* * *

**Hello Everyone**

**Thanks for reading**

**as you can tell, there are some significant changes.**

**You might be asking why I'm making Cole and Alex less thoughtful to a subtle approach. Well the thing is that Cole and Alex, in the two games they've been in, have pretty much shown nothing else other than a largely unsubtle approach. They're actions have always been extravagant and they rarely take the time to hide their face (except maybe Alex on certain missions).**

**Anyways, keep reading and I'll cya guys next week.**


	19. Rooftop Flight

**I have returned from the void in which I slept**

**From my time I have tasted the bitter fruit of the worlds created from such days**

**They make such pitiful creations, ones that enrage my soul**

**So this marks the return of the Apocalyptian Scribe**

* * *

They saw a beautiful wispy woman about five and a half feet tall stride into the town. She had a pageboy haircut and wore armor on her shoulders, waist, wrists, and feet. Her strides were powerful and experience exuded from her very being. The most noticeable trait, however, was the large sword that she carried, fully establishing her status as a Claymore, a warrior of the organization.

The appearance of the Claymore was somewhat shocking to the townsfolk. Most had expected a malformed monster that took orders like a drone, but instead they saw a beautiful figure dressed in light medieval armor and elegant in stature. Despite this, the crowd still whispered staring at the Claymore like they had seen a ghost.

"Look her eyes are silver"

"Yea, why do you think they're called silver eyed witches?"

"I really just hope that she doesn't go after us"

"Well, she does have some Yoma in her"

She shook her head at this notion for this was a common occurrence. Fear for the organization's warriors were merely rooted in a prejudice, though justified prejudice when considering their history. They feared what they could not understand and only knew that they were monsters in it of themselves.

As she strode in closer, the crowd parted like the red sea, fearing her presence as if her skin radiated a poison. Again, she shrugged off the nervous whispers and anxious gazes and continued forward. Everything was going as normal for the Claymore except for one thing.

There was a nagging presence of being watched.

She stopped, a gasp breaking through the crowd as she spun her head to shoot her gaze towards an open window. There was no one -no- there was someone, just far faster than any human reaction possible. She stuck a mental note in her head as she walked off and continued towards the village leader's abode.

At the very window that she looked at, Alex was breathing heavily leaning right next to the opening. He had pushed the Conduit away from the window, for felt a chill enter him.

"Shit," the virus said, "who the hell is she?"

* * *

**Of Lightning, Flesh, and Swords**

Chapter 3: Rooftop Flight

* * *

Inside the office of the town's Chief, an older man sat in his chair. The many wrinkles and ripples on his face presented his age and the sweat that had appeared on said wrinkles glistened. His face turned into a nervous smile as he came face to face with the claymore. Her eyes were cold as the silvery snow in her eyes.

The rumors were true indeed.

Her presence, despite his earlier alert, had shocked him. The response from the organization had barely come this morning and he had expected at least a fortnight to pass before she appeared. Now she stood within the confines of his home giving him a chilling glare that almost seemed to know what he had done.

"Uhhm, here's the payment for your services," The old man stuttered barely containing his fear. "Please, you can check it's all there."

The cold gaze of the claymore moved, he felt it cutting through his body.

"No,"

The old man went wide eyed. Did she know of his treachery? Would she deny the village of her services? Luckily, both options was not the case as the Claymore continued to speak in the same cold tone as before.

"Once the job is complete, a representative will come by and collect it. I can't accept payment myself"

The chief found himself barely able to stand as he spoke. "O-Ok. Whatever you say."

Surprisingly the Claymore started to elaborate, to the chief's horror. "It means if I fail you and die in the process, you are not obligated to pay anything."

Her words shook him. Perhaps, it was foolish to get help from the two strangers. If one so close built to fight Yoma was so accepting of her own death, what chance would they have. He might as well have sent them to their deaths

It shook him to the core.

"Um, miss?" He uttered. His fear almost got the best of him as he tried to speak, "There is one other detail that has recently come up."

"And that is?" The claymore questioned still showing no signs emotion.

"I . . . I may have hired two men to kill the Yoma"

The Claymore started to turn as the chief stood still waiting for a response. The claymore stopped, however, and spoke in a questioning tone. "What did they ask for?"

"A room in a local Inn and dinner. They promised me that they would finish by the day, but I don't know if-"

"If they have died, then that is the least of my concerns," she said continuing towards the door, "that or they've swindled you for a place to stay for the night,"

He nodded his head, "I . . . suppose,"

"If they did, however, do what they promised, I doubt they shall survive their first encounter and I would advise you not to do such a thing in the future again."

As soon as she left the door, the chief fell to his knees as his wife came to his aid.

"My god that was my first Claymore," He muttered, he could barely continue speaking as he felt his life lose a couple years. "I was expecting her to be more human but . . . but she . . . was . . . just like a monster."

* * *

Behind the dark back alleyways of the town, the duo found themselves giving bitter stares at each other as the two men argued back and forth about the Claymore.

In some sense, they could feel for the woman. Who else offered to kill creatures of death for the rest of their lives and gain no sympathy for their roles? It reminded Cole of his time in New Marias whenever he spotted a group of civilians demonizing him. It reminded Alex of his entire experience in the NYZ where, despite his attempts in curing the virus, the public feared him and the military attacked him in every possible way.

However, the morning had instantly soured Alex's attitude towards the Claymore and he simply refused to go near the woman.

"I'm telling you, something's just off about her,"

"Right and we're absolutely normal,"

"No, you don't understand, she's . . . something else,"

"She'll help us find them and we'll just help her kill them. Side's, don't you wanna see one of those ladies in action,"

"No," Alex said in a stern voice, "I'd really prefer it if I just go hunting for the things myself before we talk to her,"

Cole gave mischievous sneer, "Yeesh Mercer, you were jumpy. What's the real reason buddy? Got some blood goin' down under?"

Alex scowled, "Be serious Macgrath, she's a biological super soldier built to kill monsters. She's bound to have something wrong with her mind,"

Cole opened his mouth to say something, but refrained from speaking. It would have been somewhat rude to comment further seeing how Alex wasn't very fond of his origins.

"If yuh want, we could just split up,"

Alex shrugged, "Could work, just don't give too much away. If she asks why we're helping, just say we have experience with hunting Yoma,"

"Sounds good." Cole said waving off his travel companion to which Alex took his chance and doubled back to the crime scene.

Cole shook his head, wondering what could have gone through the virus' mind before starting up towards a wall to get to higher ground. Perhaps Alex did have a point, though. He, like Alex, had no idea what Claymores were like . . . maybe it was best to side on the air of caution. Then again . . .

"Meh," Cole said as he eyed another foothold, "Besides, what's the worst that could happen,"

Once he made it up to the top, Cole stretched in anticipation. The familiar feeling of rough stones was comforting and the medieval techniques used to make the walls made them uneven with some sticking out. It was almost like an adventure just finding the little nooks and crannies that he could use.

He jumped up and down several times, making sure that each time he pressed his foot against the tiled rooftops to feel the texture below him. Smooth yet sturdy enough to hold him; that put a smile on his face. With that knowledge in place, he took a running head start towards the edge and leaped to the other side.

As his body reached the other side, he pulled himself into a roll to keep his momentum and pushed towards the other side. Small bumps and pillars in the roof kept the run interesting, forcing him to weave and jump around the obstacles set in front of him. Again, another roof was cleared and the conduit jumped up to the next roof.

Cole gave a smirk as he cleared roof after roof and conquered the medieval terrain around him. To be fair, it had been a while since he had done something like this. For the last three months, every time he had been on a rooftop running was either because he was being shot at or he was chasing someone that would turn to shoot at him. Granted, he was appreciative of the newer tricks he had received with his powers like the ability to grind on power-lines, float long distances, or just the plain old ice jump. Those just added a whole new level of excitement that gave thrills he had never felt in the first place.

That said though, it was still nice to have the roofs to himself. It was certainly the most nostalgic thing he had before everything.

Before the Blast and the chaos that came with it.

Cole felt something jerk at him a little. While the chaotic three months had worn him down, it did sort of help dull some of the things that had gone on. He caused a plague that could have wiped out all life on Earth, he nearly caused an arms race of conduits to completely over take the planet, and he changed the lives of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of lives all because his future self needed him to fight.

And now that the dust had settled, those powers he just been thinking about seemed more bittersweet than anything else.

Cole shook his head, looking left and right, trying to find the landmark designating the middle of the town. Once it was in his sights, he bolted towards the roof but skidded to a stop upon reaching the edge of the roof.

"Whoa," he said noting the distance. It wasn't that far, especially with his thrusters and his ice jump, but the busy streets below would have seen him in a heartbeat. If he wanted to go fast enough over with the thrusters, he would have needed to have been on a power-line for momentum. But there were no power-lines or even electricity to boost himself. He'd have to drop down and walk to the building and then climb back up.

Or . . .

Cole hopped in place and stopped to stretch his legs. He pulled his foot backwards, letting the heel of his right and left foot touch the back of his leg. A few more seconds passed as he gave a few more hops, jumping from one foot to the other in preparation.

He turned away from the edge and walked several steps. Finally, after the getting a feel again for the roof under him, he bolted straight for the landmark and jumped at the last instance with his foot pushing off of the cornered edge.

He had some good air; great air in fact. From that jump alone, he was crossing at least a 30 feet gap and it surprised him even further when he found himself going higher and higher. In fact, he nearly flew straight over his intended roof, landing into a roll and nearly pulling over to the other side of the roof. Cole looked up as laid there with his back towards the ground.

"Well that's nice," Cole said both relieved and shocked how much stronger physically he had become. In the earlier battle with the Yoma, Cole almost felt light and free, allowing him to dodge and weave around the Yoma easily without a care. He wasn't just stronger power-wise, he was physically stronger as well.

Before Cole could further ponder on his new found strength, he stood up neither caring nor bothering to think about his newer abilities. Most of the time, others usually did the scientific observations, not him. Alex would probably know what was happening.

Thus his attention turned to the somewhat taller building that situated itself in the general middle of the town. He jumped, using his stronger legs to get an early boost, and climbed straight to the top with no fatigue what so ever.

"Hmm," Cole said quickly reaching the top without even breaking a sweat, "easier than I thought."

Indeed, even looking back, he didn't even breathe heavy from fighting a 2 on 1 battle against a super powered demon. It seemed like as if he was going to have to have quite a lot of questions by the end of the day.

His mind focused yet again as he stood atop the flat roof the tall building. Preparing himself, Cole finally sent out a pulse of electricity, in an attempt to look for the Yoma's or at least the Claymore's presence. However, something else seemed to come back and stopped him in his tracks.

As the pulse came back he could feel a presence behind him and moving towards him at high speeds.

With the intent to kill

A quick turn to the side barely gave him enough time to dodge a silver sword that threatened to cut him in half. However, once that occurred, his reflexes forced him to move more and more as the cold and calculated assault continued to hack away at him. By the fifth swing of the sword, Cole finally managed to pull out his tuning fork shaped Amp out in front of him and parry an attack only for another slash to make its mark on his arm. A pair of golden eyes stared back at him as his combatant moved back.

"Holy shit," Cole exclaimed looking at the Claymore, "The hell was that for,"

She calmly shifted her weight, easily holding up the heavy blade that most men would barely be able to carry.

"You've got the scent of a Yoma and your reflexes aren't human," Her voice, while not slimy and disgusting like Sasha's or as dark and gritty as Kesslar's, was as close to a chilling growl as the human voice could get. It was emotionless, lifeless, and filled with hatred.

"I could say the same for you," Cole said keeping his amp up defensively. He wasn't going to let her get the jump on him again.

"It's pointless to hide now, just reveal yourself,"

Cole smirked, "Sorry, I don't take off my pants for just any woman you know,"

Upon hearing that, the blond haired warrior scowled at Cole, pushing herself forward and swinging her sword down.

Cole jumped back, noting the distance from the edge and smashing his amp up to meet her sword when the next strike came. She followed it up with an onslaught of slashes and Cole tried dodging most of the blows and parrying only one or two hits.

By the fifth cut, Cole was starting to see that the title of super soldier wasn't just a misnomer. He could barely keep up with the Claymore's movements and her combat training was nothing to laugh at. Once another swing at his head came, he dashed backwards putting himself right on the edge of the roof.

"Shit," finally noticing his position, "Guess dating's out of the question?"

The Claymore looked at him more annoyed than confused, "You talk too much,"

Cole rolled his eyes and muttered, "Yea, I already got a guy that tells me that."

She continued forward and sent a wide slash to his chest. He pulled the amp up just in time, only to find the momentum of the sword pushing him off the building, all the way into the crowded street below.

"Holy –!"

His voice, luckily, made it into the ears of the hapless villagers below him and ran immediately out of his way. As he made it to the ground, his rolling figure crashed into a wooden stall and knocked the numerous vegetable out of their boxes.

"Ugh," Cole plucked the cabbage leaf off of his head, "Least I'm not dead,"

"That can be arranged,"

The familiar sword of the Claymore came down on him, threatening to split him in two, but before it did so, Cole instinctively grabbed the blade in between his hands. Both put a struggle to overpower the other, but the blade did not budge an inch.

"I don't suppose I can just say sorry?"

She growled even more furiously, veins popping out from her forehead, "Shut . . . up"

Before anything could be done, a loud crash drew the two combatant's attention away from each other and to a cloud of dusty smoke. At first, nothing seemed to stir but suddenly, the disheveled figure of a teen stumbled out, his face filled with a look of despair.

"Please you have to help me!" he said pointing behind him, "Some monster is chasing me!"

A gruff voice responded, "Shut the fuck up you god damn rat."

Another figure's form came out, instantly recognized by Cole. It was Alex with his ever present scowl and hood, though this time he seemed far more annoyed than the last Cole had seen him.

The Claymore, like the many citizens standing around watching Cole's initial fall, gave Alex and the man both a look of sheer confusion. Alex returned that same look to both her and Cole. He specifically gave the conduit a snide grin.

"Told you,"

Cole rolled his eyes, "It's just a misunderstanding,"

"Looks more like she's ready to slice you in two,"

It was at this point, the Claymore had pull her blade away from Cole, much to his relief, and aimed it instead towards Alex, which then caused Cole alarm.

"What's going on?" she demanded causing the virus to give an annoyed look.

"I just did your job, woman. That kid's a Yoma and you can check it for yourself,"

Still skeptical, she turned to face the boy still within a state of shock. His eyes spelled fear as she stared into them and soon almost hypnotically, the boy never noticed the Claymore place her hands on the boy's face. She pulled him in closer and for a second, she remained still and unmoving.

But she simply let him go and at that, the boy fell to the ground.

"He is not a Yoma,"

Alex's eyes widened, "What? He smells just like them."

"Smell does not identify a yoma fully," as she said this, the boy stood to walk away but she stopped him in his tracks, "however, you may not leave yet."

The boy did as he was told, Alex and Cole giving the Claymore looks as she forced him to sit down. When she turned, the same unemotional visage they had seen early that day.

"So then," she said coldly, "You two are the 'Yoma Hunters' the village leader was talking about."

Cole gave a look to Alex, but the virus failed to respond, ". . . uh," Cole rubbed the back of his head, "Yea?"

The claymore sighed.

"I'm also assuming that you're willing to help?"

Cole smiled, "Hell yea, when do we-"

She raised her hand to stop Cole from continuing and he followed the warrior's unspoken command.

"Judging by your . . . abilities, I suppose you can be an asset," she pointed to the boy, "That smell, while it may not truly identify a Yoma, it does tell us that he's been in frequent contact with one."

Alex still glared at her, staying as the unmoving statue of a paranoid monster staring down a different creature of sorts. Cole stepped in for the virus.

"Ok then, let's get this show on the road,"

If there was any confusion within the Claymore, she did not show anything at that moment. She sheathed her sword and nodded.

"Once we are done," She turned her head, drilling daggers into Cole's eyes with her own silver orbs, "we're all going to have a talk,"

For a moment, Cole looked at the Claymore's eyes unfazed by the woman's gaze. But a second later, he smiled back in confidence.

"Gladly,"

* * *

**HOLY FUCK FINALLY ITS OUT**

**Sorry for the wait, I literally got my computer reset completely and I had to rewrite the entire third chapter.**

**OH WELL, ITS FINALLY OUT.**

**As you guys can tell, I have sort of revamped the story and set it in a clearer direction than before. This is because I've gotten somewhat better at writing and understanding plot development. I want the story to include Claire from the beginning so that we can see the build up with Cole and Claire.**

**I also never got to build up the hidden enemy the first time around so, as you can tell, I'm doing plenty of that to hype up the eventual battles that will come.**

**Also, I finally got rid of that FUCKING "LET'S BE HERO" talk. Dear GOD that was cheesy as fuck. I really did not know what to do to get the together properly. Now that I have a reason for them to stick together without going OC on them, I can finally show a proper Alex and Cole while still showing them grow together as a team.**

**Anyways PLEASE REVIEW**

**BY THE WAY**

**THE POLL FINALLY ENDED AND THE PAIRING FOR ALEX IS**

***drumroll***

**Luciela**

**Because of this, I will change up some of what Luciela's personality was made up to be. I'll keep the core focus, but I think the changes will help make things 1. More natural and 2. Less awkward.**


End file.
